Australians remember Bali bomb victims

Every October, Dave "Spike" Stewart travels to Bali to mark another year since his
29-year-old son Anthony died inside the Sari Club.

Seven years have passed since Jemaah Islamiah terrorists murdered 202 people in
Kuta, including Anthony and 87 other Australians. But it never gets any easier,
Spike says.
"It's still very hard. Why did it happen, why did He take my son? I still ask myself
that."
But the past 12 months have brought some relief. Last November, the three main
planners of the 2002 attacks - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas - were executed.
Since then, Indonesian police have killed terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top -
responsible for the subsequent 2005 Bali attacks, among others - and many of his
acolytes.
"It really makes you happy every time they get another one," Spike says softly.
"I wish they'd shoot more of the bastards. I just hate them."
Spike was one of about 40 Australian survivors and family members who gathered at
the Australian consulate in Bali on Monday to mark the seventh anniversary of the
devastating attacks.
Mourners sang the Australian and Indonesian national anthems and laid wreaths in the
consulate's memorial garden.
Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, grew emotional as he spoke of the
"shocking attacks" that claimed so many innocent lives.
"To Indonesia I say: Australia stands shoulder to shoulder with you," he said.
Natalie Juniardi, who lost her Indonesian husband John in the attacks, said the
anniversary was always difficult.
"It always brings back that night and what happened, the feelings, the sadness," she
said.
"All the pain comes out again."
Juniardi says she felt enormous relief when the bombers were finally executed last
year and Noordin was shot dead last month.
"I think the more the police act like this the better it will be for Indonesia,
tourists will begin to believe in the government again."
In Kuta, scores of locals and tourists made the pilgrimage to the permanent
memorial, which stands on an intersection between the two bombing sites.
A group of Indonesian terrorism victims read a declaration promoting peace and
pluralism before leading prayers and scattering flowers across the site.
In Launceston, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia's thoughts and prayers were
with all those who suffered as a result of the 2002 attacks.
"This is a day which Australians won't forget," he said.
"It's a day the families of those who lost their lives, and those who were injured,
won't forget either.
"This has meant that so many lives in Australia, so many families, have been
fundamentally changed because of that act of brutal terrorism in 2002."
In Sydney, NSW Premier Nathan Rees was among about 300 people who gathered at the
Bali memorial at Coogee beach to mark the anniversary.
Twenty of the 88 Australians killed in the Bali blasts came from the Coogee and
surrounding eastern Sydney area.