0.cached.png
By Joe Cochrane
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Mark Weingard was putting on his bravest face. Amid the chaos at Bali's Sanglah Hospital, the thirtysomething Briton methodically tramped through the hallways, posting fliers with photos and information about his missing fianceHE KEPT HIS composure amid the growing probability that her life--and his life as he knew it--had been wiped out by horrific bomb blasts last weekend at a popular nightclub in Bali's Kuta Beach district. "I'm going to find her, dead or alive," he vowed. "I won't stop until I find her."
He could be in for a long and painful wait. In the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack since 9-11, some relatives of the more than 140 still-missing have descended here in hopes of finding them alive in local hospitals. But as the days pass from Saturday night's attack, they are slowly being forced to accept the reality that their missing loved ones are likely dead. And as the stench from Kuta's overstretched morgue permeates the center of the Bali resort, it is becoming clear that some will never be identified. It's likely, too, that the death toll will rise from an estimated 180 to as high as 230.
Many bodies are charred beyond recognition. Others--like so many victims of the World Trade Center attack--have been incinerated without a trace. Survivors like Weingard are searching frantically for the missing, posting signs describing their loved ones on the walls of Bali's largest hospital and making heartbreaking visits to the morgue where corpses are rotting in spite of the arrival of refrigerated trucks from Australia. To add to the pain, they may not even be able to bring the bodies home. "It's quite likely there will be victims who will be unable to be identified," Ross Tysoe, the Australian consul-general on Bali told journalists.
Read More on News
About 100 seriously injured victims have already been evacuated to Australia for further treatment. Some 300 others from more than 15 countries have been treated and released. And while recovery efforts at the blast site have ended, police are still looking for traces of the car that held a bomb powerful enough to destroy windows and roofs in buildings more than a mile away.
Forensic experts from Australia, which may have lost as many as 200 of its citizens in the fiery blasts, are working to identify the charred remains, but Tysoe said even DNA samples and dental records may be useless in most cases.
Although no organization has claimed responsibility for the blast, many government leaders believe the bombers were either members or sympathizers of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is home to Jemaah Islamiah, a radical Islamic group that many believe may be behind the attack. "The Bali bomb blast is linked to Al Qaeda with the cooperation of local terrorists," Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said in the capital of Jakarta. "I am not afraid to say, though many have refused to say, that an Al Qaeda network exists in Indonesia." Abu Bakar Bashir, the reputed spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, has denied that his group was involved in the blast.
President George W. Bush has also blamed Al Qaeda for the blast, saying Monday that it was part of a pattern that included recent attacks in Kuwait and Yemen. Bush, indicating a lack of patience with the Indonesian government for its failure to act earlier against Islamic militants, said that he expected Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri to crack down on radical groups in her country. "I'm going to make it clear to her that we need to work together to find those who murdered all those innocent people and bring them to justice," Bush told reporters in Washington.
The sense of shock, horror and sorrow seems to have engulfed the entire island, which for decades has been known only as an oasis of peace, harmony and beauty. Local Balinese are going about their daily lives, and those tourists who have opted to remain continue to shop and visit the local beaches. But the brave faces being put on cannot mask the overpowering and visible sense of dread. "Why Bali?" asked Feisol H. Hashim of the Indonesian Tourism Council.
Why, indeed? I have visited Bali more than 15 times in the past seven years, always leaving refreshed, relaxed and with a tan. The Balinese, who are mainly Hindus, have mastered the art of hospitality and racial harmony. I had encouraged friends and family to visit, saying it would be the experience of a lifetime. In March, I even guided two vacationing friends around the island. At my suggestion, we went to dance one night at the Sari Club, which was destroyed in the weekend fireball by a car bomb containing plastic explosives.
After walking through the rubble of the blast site this week, and realizing we had been at that very spot a few months before, my memories of that happy evening out will always be tainted by the horror of the carnage that took place there.
Previous visitors who are safely thousands of miles away are also sharing my dread and shock--and searching for answers. Kirsten Hatherley, a traveling Briton whom I met earlier this year in northern Bali, sent me an e-mail that sadly sounded like an obituary for the country's tourism industry. "I have such wonderful memories of my time in Bali," she wrote. "It's such a shame that so many people will not have the same experience, and now the country will suffer greatly."
There's no doubt of that. Thousands of hotel reservations will be cancelled, charter flights scrapped and throngs of would-be tourists will undoubtedly stay away in the coming months or years. The bombings will have major security implications for Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest nation with 220 million people. Surviving friends and relatives of the victims, who come from five continents, will be wracked by grief for years.
But what about the Balinese? Tourism is their security and livelihood. The island survives on the 1.4 million visitors who come each year, spending nearly $2 billion annually. The jobs of most Balinese are directly linked to the tourism industry, whether it is a mom-and-pop restaurant or a farmer whose vegetables are bought by the local hotel resorts. During my travels on Bali, I've eaten at the roadside stands and driven past farmers tending their fields. Some of them won't make it. Indeed, entire villages will face economic hardship, even collapse. For them too, the pain of terror will longer on.
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines