DENPASAR – The long awaited Bali Peace Park to honour victims of the 2002 Bali bombings appears to be back on track thanks to intervention from Bali’s governor, Made Mangku Pastika.
The development of the park has been delayed by counter proposals in Bali to put a nightclub on the vacant Sari Club lot, and by squabbling among those in Australia who claim ownership of the project.
The governor is reported to have intervened to break a long-standing deadlock between the site’s owner and the Bali Peace Park Association over the price of the land where the Sari Club stood before the bombing that destroyed it.
Governor Pastika holds an Order of Australia, awarded in recognition of his role in bringing the Bali bombers to justice during his former commission as Bali police chief.
He is believed to have negotiated a price for the land that is more acceptable to the Bali Peace Park Association, the group which is driving the peace park plan.
Bali Peace Park Association chairman Nick Way said, “The governor told me that Bali owes this project to the world.â€
Balinese hospitality czar Kadek Wiranatha planned to build a new nightclub on the Sari Club site, but latest reports from Bali indicate that he has been talked out of this proposal.
