Paras Indonesia, 10, 08 2005 @ 05:47 pm
Bali Bombings Claim 23rd Casualty
Roy Tupai
A young woman injured in last week's triple suicide bombings in Bali has died after
surgery, bringing the death toll to 23, reports said Saturday (8/10/05).
Endri Kartika (19), a cashier at Raja's Restaurant and Bar in Kuta, had been in a
coma since the October 1 attacks and died on Friday night from internal bleeding after
failed surgery, detikcom online news portal reported.
Kartika had suffered severe wounds to her face and body, and the surgery was the
second operation she had undergone since being admitted to Sanglah Hospital.
The hospital's president director I Gusti Lanang Rudiartha told Agence France-Presse
that doctors had tried their best to treat the victim's wounds but were unable to stop
the bleeding.
Kartika is the 15th Indonesian victim to die in the three restaurant bombings, which
also killed four Australians and a Japanese, as well as the three suicide bombers.
The attacks injured 148 people: 100 Indonesians, 29 Australians, seven South
Koreans, four Japanese, four Americans, three Germans and one French citizen. Ten
Indonesians and one Korean are still in intensive care at hospitals in Bali, while seven
other victims are receiving treatment in Singapore and Australia.
Kartika's family has taken her body to their hometown of Blitar in East Java province
for burial.
Australian Victims' Bodies to be Flown Home
The bodies of three of the four Australians killed in the attacks were due to be flown to
Sydney this weekend, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The three, identified by dental records, were Jennifer Gail Williamson (44), Fiona
Zwolinski (44) and Colin Patrick Zwolinski (54), said Ida Bagus Putu Alit, head of
forensics at Sanglah Hospital. All three were from the city of Newcastle in New South
Wales state.
The body of the fourth Australian victim, Brendan Fitzgerald (16), was to be flown to
the West Australian capital of Perth after formal identification using DNA tests was
completed.
Three severed heads, believed to belong to the suicide bombers, have been handed to
National Police headquarters in Jakarta for further investigation and identification.
Police have released photos of the heads in the hope the public can assist with the
identification process.
Hunt for Masterminds Continues
Bali Police chief General I Made Mangku Pastika said identifying the suicide bombers
is a priority and he hopes the planners of the attacks are still on the resort island.
"It depends on how high level of mastermind we are talking about, because
sometimes when it's one level up then we say there's the mastermind. Or maybe two
levels up," he was quoted as saying by ABC.
The police search for those involved in the bombings is focusing on Bali and on
strongholds of Islamic radicals in Java. So far 169 people have been questioned as
witnesses.
Police say that wanted militant Noordin Mohammad Top, who is believed to have
plotted the latest attacks and other bombings, was almost caught in a pre-dawn raid
in Central Java province on Friday.
On Thursday, police in Central Java's Purworejo regency detained a Malaysian man
suspected of links to the October 1 blasts. Police declined to identify the 35-year-old
man, but reports said had allegedly come to Indonesia with two associates to preach
Islam.
Central Java Police chief Inspector General Chaerul Rasjid said authorities were close
to identifying two of the three suicide bombers.
He also said the wife of terror suspect Zulkarnaen had several made phone calls to
Bali three days before the bombings. He said the phone numbers have been passed
on to the Bali Police and would be traced.
'Execute the Bombers'
Scores of Balinese rallied in the island's capital of Denpasar on Saturday to demand
the immediate execution of three terrorists sentenced to death for their roles in the
October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
Calling themselves the Antiterrorism Movement, the residents gathered along several
major streets to distribute pamphlets urging the government to execute the trio on
death row and thoroughly crush the roots of terrorism.
Organizers said a larger demonstration will be staged in the city on Monday.
The three men sentenced to death over the first Bali bombings are Amrozi, Imam
Samudra and Mukhlas. Authorities have not announced any timetable for their
executions.
Police have shown the photographs of the three suspected suicide bombers from the
latest attacks to Amrozi and the others, but the convicted terrorists said they did not
recognize them.
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