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The
burning nightclub on Bali
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LONDON,
October 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A U.K. writer on
Monday, criticized the general reluctance to discuss the motives
behind the bomb blasts in the Indonesian tourist island, Bali, which
killed at least 187 people and wounded 309, mostly foreigners.
In
an article published in the daily U.K. newspaper, the Independent,
Robert Fisk said that “everyone wanted to know who had planted the
bombs” but no one “wanted to talk about motives.”
“‘Terrorism’
was the all-important word (an accurate one too), which was used to
smother any discussion about what lay behind the crime,” he said.
Fisk
also added that since Australia lined up to join the “war on
terror” and since John Howard has been among President Bush’s
toughest supporters, Australians were the principal victims of the
blast.
“Australian
special forces have been operating with American troops in the Afghan
mountains against al-Qa'ida. It's a fair bet that yesterday's savagery
was al-Qa'ida hitting back.
“The
French have already paid a price for their initial support for Mr
Bush. The killing of 11 French submarine technicians in Karachi has
been followed by the suicide attack on the French oil tanker Limburg
off the coast of Yemen. Now, it seems, it is the turn of Australia,”
Fisk said.
“The
victims were largely young civilians, just as innocent as the
thousands who died in the World Trade Center. Civilians get no quarter
in this war, whether they are investment brokers in New York, Afghan
families or Australian honeymooners.”
Fisk
ends his article by posing the question “Who’s next? When is it
Britain’s turn?”
“Our
support for the United States – an infinitely closer alliance than
any support from France – makes Britain the most likely candidate
for attack after the US,” said
Fisk
adding that Bali only emphasizes “what the last year should have
taught us: that individual innocence no longer protects us, that we
are living – whether we know it or not – in a terrifying new
age.”
Meanwhile,
the British press on Monday hit out at the laxity of the Indonesian
government toward Islamic movements.
"The
Indonesian government's response to the terrorist threat has been
utterly inadequate," wrote the center-right daily The Times.
"Warnings from Washington and, significantly, from the
Singaporean and Malaysian governments, have been ignored.
"The
country is now counting the cost of that laxity," The Times
said, stressing that tourist income would plummet, regional airlines
would head for bankruptcy and investment would flee Indonesia.
The
right-wing Daily Telegraph asked in an editorial: "Will
Saturday's atrocity in Bali, which has already cost at least 186
lives, finally prompt the Indonesian government to take decisive
action against the country's burgeoning Islamic movement?"
Compared
with Malaysia and Singapore, or even the Philippines, Indonesia's
contribution to the fight against terrorism had been small, the Telegraph
said.
"In
consequence of this 'softly, softly' approach, the Islamic have grown
bolder at all levels, ideologically and militarily," the daily
said.
The
business daily the Financial Times on the other hand
came to Indonesia's
defense. "Washington has repeatedly complained that Jakarta
has been reluctant to take terrorist threat seriously - a complaint by
neighbors in the region such as Malaysia and Singapore," it
wrote.
"However,
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has
a weak government that is unable to control large parts of its diverse
and strife-torn archipelago."
