Blasts spark painful Bali memories

When bombs rip through Bali, Israel or Iraq, Ngunguru man Patrick Shepheard knows all too well what the aftermath looks like.
He was there when a bomb blew up Paddy's Bar in Bali, in September 2002. He helped badly burned people and carries the memories with him like it was yesterday.
Hearing news of the weekend attacks on Bali brought back the painful memories of his own time caught up in a terrorist attack. "It never fades," he said. "It's hard to imagine. After a blast everyone's in shock. For a couple of hours everyone walks around in a daze."
He knew of other New Zealanders who had been close to the 2002 bomb sites and had turned to drugs and whose marriages had failed because of awful memories. "I can't watch the news any more because I can't handle it," he said.
He was sickened to hear of the latest bomb blasts in Bali. "It gave me an instant headache just thinking about it. I really feel sorry for the Balinese most of all because people are going to stop going there," he said. "They haven't got a social welfare system. They're going to be hurting badly. The terrorists are just mindless."
Neither he nor partner Julia Warrington have been back to Bali since 2002. "I still would go back just for the Balinese' sake. They are special people. They're gentle people. This flies in the face of their whole society."
• Meanwhile, in Indonesia anger is mounting over the fact that, yet again, most of the dead are locals and most of the damage has hit local businesses. Like a Jakarta attack in 2003 and a September 2004 blast outside the Australian embassy, Indonesians bore the brunt of the weekend bombings. Four Australians and one Japanese seem to be among about 24 victims of the three blasts.
"Why is it only us? Why is Bali again the target of bombs?" asked I Gede Wiratha, of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Made Mangku Sudita, 36, who owns a restaurant next to the cafe where the first blast occurred in Jimbaran, called for vengeance. "We have to kill those terrorists", he said.