Bali Bombing Survivor’s Heartache After Seeing ‘Disgraceful’ State of Memorial

A heartbroken Australian man who lost several friends during the 2002 Bali Bombings has slammed the state of the “rapidly deteriorating” public memorial, which he said has been neglected for months and is now overflowing with rubbish.

Victorian man Jan Laczynski was present on the night of the bombings almost 22 years ago in the popular nightlife precinct of Kuta, in which 202 people were killed, including 88 Australians. Although his life was miraculously spared during the attack — which at the time was branded the “worst act of terror in Indonesia’s history” — five of his loved ones weren’t so lucky.

Laczynski said the beloved monument honouring the victims, in Kuta in the Badung Regency, is a place many Australians go “to reflect on that awful night” each time they’re in Bali, but after viewing it two weeks ago, he “just stood there in disbelief, completely stunned” by the state of it.

Bali bombing survivor ‘shocked’ by state of ‘sacred’ memorial

He saw cigarette butts, empty vapes, floating trash and piles of debris present throughout the water feature, which he said now was now merely “slimy green water”.

Laczynski photographed cracks and broken tiles around the edges of the structure — also known as Ground Zero Monument— and said its signature light display no longer worked.

“The lights that used to come on at night aren’t working. The pumps for the water fountain aren’t working. It has a stench, the water’s slimy and green,” he told Yahoo News Australia.

“It’s supposed to be a place of reflection. Every single day you go there, there are Australians there on their holidays — they make a B-line to it. It’s the place where that awful event happened.

“Just to see it like that, I was honestly totally shocked. The pond is like a rubbish tip. It’s a disgrace.

“I just stood there in disbelief, just thinking ‘this isn’t right, imagine if this was Gallipoli’ — this is a very sacred place for a lot of Australians. I just found it painful to see it in that state. Rubbish everywhere, even behind the memorial. Live electrical wires, exposed wiring. It’s just wrong.”

Laczynski said he personally called local authorities to make them aware of the “embarrassing” problem and was assured the issue was on their radar and that plans were currently underway to have it “fixed”.

He’s far from the first to share his criticisms of the deteriorating memorial, with other travellers having also recently raised the issue in recent months, according to reports.

The Kuta Village Community Empowerment Institute said earlier this year it was committed to ensuring the space is well maintained to honour those affected by the attacks and to ensure travellers visiting feel “comfortable and safe”.

Source: au.news.yahoo.com