'Don't use Bali bomb as pretext for attack'

A survivor of the Bali bomb whose boyfriend died in the terrorist attack has warned his death should not be used as an excuse for America and the UK to go to war with Iraq.

Hanabeth Luke last night accused Tony Blair and George Bush of risking a war as a backlash to the al-Qa'ida attacks on Bali and the US.

"I really can't see what the motives are behind this war as you can't stop a war with a bomb," she told The Independent on Sunday. "I see a huge amount of futility in war and it's certainly not going to bring about world peace. I should be extremely angry at the terrorists but that's not the case. I just feel an enormous sadness at the way the world is being run."

Her partner, Marc Gajardo, was the first British victim officially identified after October's bombing of the Sari nightclub, which killed more than 180 people. She believes that thousands more civilians will die if Iraq is bombed in revenge for their deaths and those killed in the 11 September attacks on the US.

Last night she joined the rising wave of anti-war protests by urging the Prime Minister and President Bush not to put a generation of youngsters on the front line.

Ms Luke, 22, said she wanted to meet those responsible for the Bali bombing, but insisted she didn't feel any hatred towards them and just wanted to find out why they carried out the attack.

It was the job of politicians across the globe, she said, to do everything in their power to avert wars rather than looking for an excuse to launch attacks that would only bring heartache.

"I don't think world leaders are acting responsibly – both in the West and the East," she said. "They are not thinking about their children's futures and just seem to be focusing more on financial and power gain than simple happiness.

"It worries me when people like Bush are making decisions which will affect the whole world yet are not going to benefit the whole world."

Ms Luke said the view among a number of Bali survivors – many of whom shared the young couple's passion for surfing – was that you couldn't fight a war against someone whose targets were children and innocent people.

"We're not a bunch of hippies throwing flowers around," she said. "We're just people who don't want anything like this to happen again. If we are going to spend any money it should be spent on intelligence gathering."

Ms Luke, originally from Cornwall, moved to Australia when her parents emigrated in the mid-1990s. She met Marc Gajardo, a 30-year-old mechanic from Truro, when she returned to visit friends two years ago. The couple were in the process of moving permanently to Australia and had talked about starting a family.

On the night of the attack they had been dancing at the Sari, a hugely popular venue, when Mr Gajardo stepped out for some air. Moments later a van exploded just yards away, killing him instantly.

Ms Luke said she could still vividly recall the horrific sight of people dying all around her in the club and at the overcrowded hospital. "I can still hear the bomb go off if I think about it and remember scrambling out in the smoke and looking for Marc," she said.

"I ran around the hospital searching for him that night but couldn't find him. Ringing his parents to tell them what had happened was the worst experience of my life."

His body was finally found under the rubble and identified in the local mortuary by a friend the following day. His funeral was held in December in Truro. Ms Luke organised a memorial surfing contest at St Agnes beach in Cornwall to raise money to upgrade hospital facilities in the shattered community of Bali.

She has since returned to Australia and is planning to go travelling for a few months before returning to university in July to continue her course in environmental sciences.

"Marc enjoyed and made the most of every day and person he met. He never judged anyone and was never angry with them," she said. "His legacy was how he lived and that's what keeps me going."