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Bali's governor has said his hands are tied when it comes to fixing the eyesore and public urinal which is the Sari Club site, where hundreds of people died in the Bali bombing 10 years ago.
I Made Pastika, who was the police chief who investigated and prosecuted the Bali bombers, admitted the price the owner was asking for the land was "crazy" and "unbelievable" but added there was little he could do about it.
A man urinates at the Bali bombing site, where the Sari Club used to stand. The site is now a car park.Credit: Justin McManus
The landowner, a rich Javanese businessman, Tija Sukamto, and the leaseholder, one of Bali's most powerful magnates Kadek Wiranatha, have refused all efforts to encourage them to part with the land, including an offer of more than $1 million, partly funded by Australian governments.
Their price is $7.2 million for three-quarters of the block - well above the market price for even the most valuable Kuta real estate.
Phil Britten, captain of the Kingsley Football Club, which lost seven members in the 2002 Bali bombing. He wants the old Sari Club site turned into a peace park.Credit: Justin McManus
A procession of pilgrims to Bali for the 10th anniversary of the bombing have expressed their disgust that what they consider to be sacred ground is a dusty, rubbish strewn wasteland which, at night, doubles as a toilet for passing drunks.
When asked about that issue, Mr Pastika said that he endorsed the proposal to turn the land into a peace park, but said that it had been delayed because the owner would not sell.
"We are still trying to persuade him to give a proper price to the public and we can build a peace memorial park," he said.
Asked about recent Indonesian legislation to acquire the land compulsorily, he said the country's "real liberal democracy" made it too difficult.
"Everybody has the right to fight if they don't like the authority … I cannot force the owner to [give up] the land and pay them with the government price, because that will give a very big reaction," Mr Pastika said.
"So we have to do the best we can. Slowly make him understand. And the problem is the owner is in Jakarta, and still mysterious … So we have to negotiate slowly."
Mr Pastika has already ordered the local "Bupati," or mayor, to veto development at the Sari Club site, which has kept it vacant.
But late at night, as the bars and nightclubs kick into action in Jalan Legian, Fairfax Media observed a number of people urinating on ground where 10 years ago this week, people were burning to death.
Phil Britten, who was badly burnt across 40 per cent of his body, and lost seven of his Kingsley Football Club mates in the blast, has been fighting for years to make the Sari Club site a peace park.
As the stalemate over the land drags on, signs have appeared on walls and gates saying in Indonesian and English, "This area strictly not public toilet," with the joking addition of: "Ladies are welcome".
Attempts to beautify the lot have failed. It's covered in hard packed dirt, rubbish is piled up in one corner, and it contains a paid parking lot and a corrugated iron eatery.
"We've tried to plant trees there. There were beautiful banana plants … and they've been taken down," Mr Britten said.
"And to see the sign about urinating … it's a bit disheartening."
Jan Laczynski, who lost five friends on the night of October 12, 2002, after returning to Melbourne just a day before the blast, used even stronger language.
"It will always be a sacred site to so many Australians, and to see a car park where the ashes of loved ones have been scattered, it's just disgraceful," he said.
Australian passers-by at the site have expressed their disbelief that the place where hundreds had died was now the ugliest block in Kuta.
However, Sandra Thompson, the mother of one of the victims, Clint Thompson, said she could not blame local people for urinating there because there were no public facilities in Kuta.
Mr Britten said he was optimistic that a peace park would eventually be built, but the leaseholder remains unmoved.
Two prominent Australian Bali bombing survivors have criticised the use of the site of the former Sari Club, the centre of the 2002 terrorist attack.
"It's disgusting," said Erik de Haart, a member of the the Coogee Dolphin rugby league team, which lost six members in the 2002 blast.
"It has no respect for the people [who] died there at all."
Mr de Haart said reports that the site was being used as a casual urinal suggested people were unaware of its significance.
"There's nothing to indicate what went on there at all," he said.
Hannabeth Luke who lost her partner, Marc Gajardo, in the blast said the use of the sites was "a very good example of people organising this memorial not listening to what families and survivors want".
"They have been campaigning for 10 years to turn this into a peace park," she said.
The night-time security guard for the parking lot, Adi, conceded it was "often" used as a toilet and that, though he always tried to prevent it, it was difficult to stop people late at night.
"Locals, tourists, drunks: it's a mix [of people]," he said.
Kadek Wiranatha told Fairfax Media he had paid for a 30-year lease and he planned to put a "nice, quiet restaurant" on it, though observers say it is more likely to be another nightclub of the kind that made his fortune.
"I'm determined to keep the land … because I already signed the lease," he said.
He said the elusive Indonesian owner also wanted to keep it, to pass it on to his grandson.
Some residents also support a park in the area which has undergone rampant development in the past few years and in which there is now little open space.
Ayu Silat was a cashier at the Sari Club on the fateful night, and only metres away from where the terrorists' one-tonne bomb blew up. She very nearly became another victim.
Five months ago this woman who nearly lost her life gave birth to new life. She wants her daughter to be able to visit a park in the place where terror visited her.
"If it's a peace park then it will stay like that, as a memory," Ms Ayu said.
"If it's just another establishment, this story, it will slowly fade away."
- with James Robertson