As hundreds gathered to mark the 20th anniversary of the horrendous 2002 Bali bombings in which more than 200 people lost their lives, a graphic video of the incident was played at the commemoration event.
The video has understandably upset the attendees, including survivors and relatives of the bombing victims. Talking to BBC, one victim’s relative said he felt “sick” about the footage being aired.
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“Nobody needs to see that. We lived through that. We were right here,” said Jessica O’Grady, a survivor of the explosion who was present in the Sari Club. She added that “We’ve been to many anniversaries here and up until that point every single one of them had been beautiful and respectful and today had been a really, really nice day up until that point. I just cannot believe that they showed that.”
According to the BBC report, the footage, a 10 min long “documentary-style” film was screened at the moment which marked the original bombing incident — 11:05 PM local time.
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It was screened on two giant screens that had distressing footage of confused, wounded people in the aftermath of the fiery explosion fleeing from the bombing site.
Audio of people screaming, yelling in panic and calls to the emergency services, police and footage of the perpetrators including one of a smiling Ali Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim who was executed by a firing squad in 2008 for his role in the attack, reports the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).
202 people of 21 different nationalities died in the 12 October 2002 attack in the bombings on two popular Indonesian nightclubs. Among the deceased were 88 Australian citizens.
Expressing its deep “disappointment” Australia said that it would formally register a complaint with Indonesia over the “devastating” footage.
Also read | Australia marks 20th anniversary of Bali bombings, Albanese says ‘ache does not dim’
An official for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was quoted by SMH as saying “The Australian Government wasn’t involved in organising the evening event in Bali. We are deeply disappointed by the decisions made by the organisers. We will be formally registering our concerns with the Indonesian authorities.”
He added that the government is ready to offer assistance to Australians who may need it following the distressing video.
(With inputs from agencies)
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