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Tensions high in Indonesia after execution of bombers
Thousands of Indonesians poured onto the streets for the funerals of three militants executed on Saturday night for the 2002 Bali bombings, causing some clashes between police and emotional supporters.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:02 November 9, 2008
- Supporters of Bali bombers scuffle with riot police during their funeral in Lamongan, East Java, on Sunday.
- Image Credit: AP
Tenggulun, Indonesia: Thousands of Indonesians poured onto the streets for the funerals of three militants executed on Saturday night for the 2002 Bali bombings, causing some clashes between police and emotional supporters.
The three men from the militant group Jemaah Islamiah - Imam Samudra, 38, Mukhlas, 48, and Amrozi, 46 - were executed by firing squad on Nusakambangan island in central Java shortly after midnight, the attorney-general's office said.
The two explosions on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002 killed 202 people including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians.
The bombers' bodies were flown from the prison by helicopter to their hometowns - brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi to Tenggulun in Lamongan, East Java, and Samudra to Serang in West Java.
"Looking at this, I feel sad, but then I am also proud that he is a Mujahid," said Nuranda, a woman who came to offer her condolences to Samudra's family.
Tensions ran high as about 3,000 people from west Java cities gathered when Samudra's body, covered in a black shroud with Islamic inscriptions, was carried to a mosque for prayers, with some jostling to touch the body or help carry the bier.
Some shook their fists in the air chanting slogans but others seemed to be just curious spectators.
In Tenggulun, thousands of supporters of groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front had gathered, shadowed by armed police and many reporters.
People chanted "Goodbye Syuhada [heroes]" as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi were taken from the mosque to an Islamic boarding school.
Vigil
Some clashed with police as authorities tried to prevent them from getting too close to the bodies. Among those in the streets were followers of controversial cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was accused of co-founding regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah and jailed for conspiracy over the Bali bombings, but later cleared of wrongdoing.
Indonesia tightened security amid fears of revenge attacks as tensions ran high, but one analyst said the executions were unlikely to spark "active terrorism".
"People need to be vigilant and there's a possibility of someone responding to the appeal of the three dead men but I don't think people should believe that there will automatically be some active terrorism," Sidney Jones from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said.
Although there have been no major bomb attacks since 2005, Indonesia is considered still at risk.
Police searched a hotel in Semarang in central Java following reports of a bomb threat that sent panic-stricken guests rushing out, but found no bomb.
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