Bali

[Jedi Master Carr]

Anybody here about the terrorist incident in Bali? It was pretty bad around 150 killed in a series of explosions, it seems to be the actions of some radical muslim group who are trying to break away from Indoeasia (they have committed other terrorist acts though this is the biggest one they have ever pulled off). I also heard the largest #dead were Australians hope none of our aussie friends were anywhere near Bali.

[Taylor Millard]

187 actually I believe.

Australians supposedly like to vacation there. Or that's what the ITN (competition of BBC) camera crew said at the radio station today.

http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,65524,00.html

[Lilaena De'Ville]

:( Thats awful.

[Marcus Telcontar]

So far 12 confirmed dead and up to 200 missing Australians. They have the Air Force evacuating the injured and everyone is getting out. As you can imagine, it's getting blanket coverage here.

[Gia Van Derveld]

Yeah, can imagine that quite well. :(

[Marcus Telcontar]

14 Australians dead, 220 missing, 113 injured. Likely that the death toll will rise and most will be listed as Australiain. As you can imagine, this is cast a shaodw over the whole place.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I know they are blaming Al-Qaida though I think it is more of a splitter group, Jemaah Islamiyah, who wants to form an independent country in Indoeasia, and across other Asian Pacific states. I think the US should stay out of it, Indoeasia probably can handle it, the country is run by the military, and knowing that fact they will probably round a bunch of them up and shoot them at undisclosed location.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Indonesia is also Islamic. Just keep that in mind.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think they want a radical Islamic state like Iran and not a moderate one, which Indoeasia is.

[Darth23]

Bali has a big Hindu population.

Plus Australia was pivitol in getting Indonesia out of East Timor - so there could be some lingering resentment from those people who were in power during the occupation.

[Darth Viscera]

*flinches at the radical iran statement*

Last I heard from glancing at a washington post yesterday, there were 188 killed, I think 22 of them aussies, 2 of them americans. I hadn't heard about the wounded or missing :(

My thoughts go out to you Marcus, I hope that the damned scumbag terrorists stay away from the aussies and the kiwis. Hell, I wish they'd stay away period.

I hope that we have an active international anti-terrorism outfit that's working on killing these monsters, like in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I am sorry about the Iran bit, it was the first thing that came to my mind. I forgot about the East Timor thing, I know there was some violence associated with that, not sure about the connections (though it is possible). Indoeasia is a difficult situation too because it is made of so many different ethnic groups and has three maybe four (I am certain of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddahism, not sure how big the Christian population is) though Islam makes over 75% of that. Still with that variation, especially since you basically have a military dicatorship in power, you are going to have problems.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Christian population keeps getting killed off. :(

[Marcus Telcontar]

Indonesia is NOT a military dictatorship, not now!

Look, this was not targeted at any racial groups, nor Australians, although by far the the most casualities are Aussie (200 estimated now), this is the work of a terrorist who aimed it at the major industry Bali has - tourism. It has almost nothign else. If that industry dies, Bali has problems.

Okay, let me correct some misstatements - Indonesia is a democracy now. It is 90% moderate Muslim on the main islands, on other islands you will find Christian and Hindu populations. It is made up of 2,200 islands. Arche is where the main Muslim / Christian troubles are. Bali itself is a fairly basic and cheap tourism place, Hindu / Buddism is big there with some Christian / Muslim influences.

The main terrosit group who seem to be linked to Al-Quada, want a SE-Asian Islamic state, covering Singapore, The Phillippines, Malaysia, Indonesia. East Timor is a small Catholic Island that used to be under Dutch control. Now, Australia was NOT resposible for kicking Indonesia out of East Timor - it was a vote and violence flared because of that and Australia was drawn in to protect civilians against militia groups. However, be under NO illusion Australia is innocent in the mess that was East Timor. Go back to 1975 when the then government encouraged Indonesia to invade, which then lead to 15 years of fighting that left 200,000 dead. No, that is not a misprint.

Indonesia and Australia then signed the tready of the Timor Gap, splitting mineral rights - the Timor sea is suspected to hold some of the worlds largest oil and gas deposits. I could tell you far more, but East Timor has nothign to do with this present terrorist act nd is not relavent to this discussion.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I wasn't sure about the situation in Indoeasia, I know that most East Asian States (Burma, Vietnam, etc ) are dictatorships, and I remember reading at one time Indoeasia was (don't know when that changed maybe you can say Marcus). I do remember reading during the East Timor crisis that the govt. was worried that the East timor could lead to other ethnic groups moving for independence, but haven't heard much on that recently. And about East Timor, I said I didn't think that it really had anything to do with though. There could be some resenment on radical muslims who wanted them to keep East Timor and blame Australia for pushing for Timor's independence, but I am not sure if these guys are that big on keeping that state.