ངོ་འཕྲད་བདེ་བའི་དྲ་འབྲེལ།

གཟའ་པ་སངས། ༢༠༢༤/༠༣/༢༩

Indonesia President Says Bali Bombings May be Work of Suicide Bombers


Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says initial investigations indicate the bombings that killed 25 people and injured more than 100 Saturday on the resort island of Bali were likely the work of suicide bombers.

While visiting Bali, Mr. Yudhoyono looked visibly upset and angry as he told journalists the bombings were clearly acts of terrorism, which he described as inhuman acts.

Mr. Yudhoyono inspected damaged areas of the popular resort island where bombs ripped through restaurants on a popular beachfront area filled with local and foreign tourists and in a bustling shopping spot in near simultaneous explosions.

The Indonesian president then visited the Sangla hospital were the injured, which include Indonesians, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, and Australians, are being treated.

Doctor Andre Dipa, chief of the foreign handling team at Sangla hospital says most of those injured have serious wounds.

"The most common injury is materials in the body, and they get multiples of open wounds with deep open wounds, and some lost eyes. I am really upset at what happened," said Dr. Dipa.

Almost three years ago to the day Bali was hit by bombs that claimed 202 lives, many of them foreign tourists.

Those blasts were blamed on the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which was also blamed for the 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people and last year's bombing of the Australian embassy that claimed 10 lives.

Robert Kelsall, chairman of the Bali Hotel Association and the general manager of the Bali Dynasty resort, says he hopes the bombings will not keep foreigners away from Bali.

"Security is high on the agenda and all the hotels are very much pushing the security aspects, we have sort of been aware there is a threat there as there is anywhere in the world now and what were just hoping is that the sort of impact of this is not going to have the same impact as it had before and that people are going to come and support Bali and not let the terrorists win," said Mr. Kelsall. "And not what happened last time where it took 21 months to recover and the Balinese suffered, they are so reliant on tourism."

For the most part life went on as usual Sunday on Bali with foreigners and locals alike crowding the beaches, shopping, and eating in restaurants.

But the bombings scared many. Tourist Leanne from Melbourne, Australia says she is nervous and feels badly for the Balinese people who rely on tourism for the bulk of their income.

"I was upset, I could not believe it," she said. "I felt sick for the local people, the Balinese people. I was nervous about coming and my friends would not come, but we decided that we would come anyway."

Governments around the world condemned the bombings and the United States and New Zealand pledged to help Indonesia catch the bombers.

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