video transcript

Australian Erik De Haart survived the Bali bombings of October 12th, 2002. Six of his rugby club team mates did not. Two hundred and two people died that night as a trio of bombs tore through the busy Kuta Beach district. Three memorials in Sydney commemorate the 88 Australians among them.. SOUNDBITE: Erik De Haart, Bali bombing survivor, saying (English) "I turned the corner, it was utter bedlam. People were just standing there in shock, the orange glow from the fire on their faces. There was lots of screaming going on, lots of yelling, lots of crying, people staggering past with cuts and bleeding from all over the place." On October 12th, ten years ago, three bombs went off almost simultaneously in this teeming Bali tourist resort. The co-ordinated attacks were partly funded by al-Qaeda. Most of the dead were foreign tourists. The attack came when security fears were on the rise in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Nearly 600 militants were rounded up in the wake of the bloodshed. Most have been jailed. Three men convicted as the main perpetrators were executed in 2008. A fourth, a bomb-maker, recently began a 20-year jail term. Erik De Haart says he doesn't believe time can heal the scars for those who lost loved ones. SOUNDBITE: Erik De Haart, Bali bombing survivor, saying (English) "Every time they're together there's a gap. So how do you close that gap where your son or your brother or your brother-in-law has been? That gap will never close, there's always going to be a reminder there." De Haart says he's not bitter. He says he's forgiven the bombers for the sake of his own sanity and so that they wouldn't ultimately win.