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DENPASAR - Survivors of the Bali bombings have been shocked at the sight of cars driving over memorials to the dead. The site of Paddy's Bar in Kuta has been turned into a car park. There are also plans to transform the neighbouring Sari Club site, which also hosts shrines and tributes, into a car park. Both nightclubs were destroyed in the October 2002 bomb blasts that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.
Paddy's has been rebuilt a few doors down from its original site. Cars are parking on the site of the biggest peacetime loss of Australian life on foreign soil for the equivalent of 20c an hour. Australian tourists in Bali said personal belongings of the deceased such as jumpers left at Paddy's are being driven on. "There's no sign at all this is where so many Australians perished," said Essendon man Jan Laczynski, who lost five friends in the Bali blasts.
Site of the Paddy's Bar site where dozens of Australians died now used as a car park.
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He was disgusted to find tributes to the dead pushed into the corner of the new lot. "It's no way to give respect to those who died. As an Australian it's an absolute shock and an absolute disgrace," he said. Stone memorials, flowers, Australian flags and personal belongings of the dead were being driven over by cars. "They're driving on makeshift memorials and cremated ashes," he said.
Paddy's Bar survivor Leanne Woodgate said it was disgusting and disappointing. "We all thought it was going to be a memorial place. We were told nothing was ever going to be built on the Sari Club site," she said. "Driving over flowers is just disrespectful." Ms Woodgate escaped the Paddy's Bar inferno with her sister Samantha and footballer Jason McCartney. She said she felt little could be done to reclaim the site.
"I thought it would always be there but now it's out of our hands," she said. Mr Laczynski was yesterday buying a bouquet to lay in the middle of the new car park. "I don't care what they call it, it's still a site of significance to me," he said. "Someone has fallen asleep at the wheel on this." Mr Laczynski emailed Prime Minister John Howard with his concerns and has spoken to his MP, Labor frontbencher Bob Sercombe.
Mr Sercombe said he would urge the Government to raise the issue with Indonesia, and said it was important any development on the bombing sites be appropriately respectful. "It would seem to be a disgraceful way to treat a site that is sacred to many Australians," Mr Sercombe said. "I'm not suggesting it's comparable to Gallipoli or other war graves, but it is a place of significance for a lot of people and a car park just doesn't seem appropriate.
"It's important that the Government does everything it can to make sure the terrible events that happened in Bali are appropriately marked and commemorated." A spokesman for Mr Howard said the PM would respond to Mr Laczynski's email.
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This is very annoying of course, but if they would use the same place for a bar, nightclub or shop, this would also be annoying.
There is a decent statue to remember the terrible event that took place.
The whole area that was destroyed back than is so large that we can’t expect the Kuta community to leave all of that area untouched until the end of time.
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There is a decent statue to remember the terrible event that took place. (2004)
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