Bali bombers executed

TENGGULUN, Indonesia — Three Indonesian Islamists were executed by firing squad early yesterday for the Bali bombings which killed 202 people, sparking calls for revenge from their radical supporters.

“At around 12:15 a.m. the three convicted men on death row, Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra were executed by firing squad,” said attorney general’s office spokesman Jasman Panjaitan.

“The autopsy results show that all three are dead,” he added.

Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and ringleader Imam Samudra, 38, were killed with shots to the heart in an orange grove near their prison on Nusakambangan island off southern Java, local television reported.

A source in the prison told AFP they shouted “Allahu Akbar (God is great)” as they were escorted out of their isolation cells by paramilitary police shortly before midnight on Saturday.

The 2002 attack targeted packed nightspots on the holiday island of Bali, killing more than 160 foreigners including 88 Australians, as well as 38 Indonesians.

Until the end, the bombers expressed no remorse for their “infidel” victims and claimed they wanted to die as “martyrs” for their dream of an Islamic caliphate spanning much of Southeast Asia.

Survivors and victims’ families expressed a mixture of relief and sadness at the news.

“I guess the overwhelming feeling isn’t joy because they’re dead, but it’s definitely relief that we don’t have to continue with the circus,” said Trent Thompson, whose brother Clint was among the Australians killed.

“It’s just utter relief,” survivor Peter Hughes told CNN on the news that the three bombers had been killed.

Hughes, who sustained horrific burns after a suicide bomber detonated himself within meters of him, said the executions took him back to the moment the first bomb went off and he found himself surrounded by burning bodies.

“We had to fight for life pretty hard back then and it’s been a struggle every day since,” he said. “So from my perspective these guys set about mass murder and they’ve paid the highest penalty. But it doesn’t feel good.”

Sydneysider Erik de Haart, who lost six friends in the bombings, said he was still coming to terms with the news.

“What it does is just give us a sense of justice, that finally someone has been punished,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The bombers, members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network, were sentenced in 2003 but launched at least four failed legal challenges which delayed their executions and kept them in the media spotlight.

Hundreds of supporters briefly clashed with police as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi — the latter dubbed the “smiling assassin” for his courtroom antics — arrived by helicopter at their village of Tenggulun in east Java.

There were similar scenes in the west Java town of Serang as Samudra’s body was paraded to the graveyard, shrouded in a black cloth bearing a Koranic inscription in Arabic.

“There’ll probably be retaliation. What is clear is that no drop of Muslim blood is free. It has consequences,” said Ganna, 26, who traveled 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Jakarta to Serang to show his support.

The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims have little sympathy for militants, and even among the angry mourners in Serang. One man told AFP the bombers’ “jihad” was wrong.

“Someone who killed others will not die as martyrs unless they waged a war in the name of religion. They were not fighting for religion,” Umar Shihab was quoted as saying by the Detikcom news website.

Security has been beefed up around sensitive areas such as embassies, tourist spots, shopping malls and ports. On Hindu-majority Bali, 3,500 police are on the streets providing additional security, officials said.

Australia has urged citizens to reconsider travel to Indonesia and the United States — which lost seven nationals in the attack — has warned Americans to “maintain a low profile” and avoid demonstrations.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose government opposes the death penalty, said it was a time to remember the victims and survivors of the bloody attack.

“Their lives remain shattered. They’ve been changed fundamentally by that murder,” he said. “So it is their lives that we think about today.”

The bombers were sentenced under a new anti-terror law that was applied retroactively, leading to criticism from rights campaigners and fueling anger among their Islamist supporters.

Amnesty International said the executions should be the last time Indonesia uses the death penalty.

The Bali attack was the bloodiest in a sustained period of al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist violence in the world’s most populous Muslim country, including a car-bombing on the Australian embassy in 2004.

The alleged mastermind, Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, is still at large.

AFP up and ready

Following the execution, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it would not yet raise the alert level but would maintain the readiness of its troops to address any eventuality that might be triggered by this latest development.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, AFP spokesman, said in a phone interview that the alert level remains the same, because units in areas where the Abu Sayyaf and their Jemaah Islamiyah cohorts operate are already maintaining a high level of preparedness.

“In areas where the Abu Sayyaf operates, our troops are always on guard for any eventuality. In the light of the executions, there is no formal directive yet as to whether the alert level for the AFP would be raised,” he said.

Torres said that as of the moment they have not monitored any intelligence report of any plan by the Abu Sayyaf or the JI to stage retaliatory attacks following the Bali executions.

The Abu Sayyaf and some 28 JI members are said to be moving in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Two JI members, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, also wanted for the Oct. 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people, are reportedly with the local bandit group.

They have been the subject of manhunt operations since 2006.

Dulmatin was said to have been killed in a firefight with government troops last year, although DNA tests conducted on what was believed to be his remains have not shown positive results. – James Mananghaya