BBC : Indonesia executes Bali bombers

Indonesia executes Bali bombers

The bombers said they were keen to be "martyrs"

Three Indonesian Islamic militants condemned to death for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people have been executed by firing squad.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) were shot at the island prison of Nusakambangan at 0015 (1715 GMT on Saturday), officials said.

They were found guilty of planning twin attacks on nightclubs at the resort of Kuta, popular with Western tourists.

Security forces are on alert across the country amid fears of reprisal attacks.

BALI BOMBINGS Paddy's Bar and Sari Club in the resort of Kuta targeted 202 killed from 21 countries, including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons Severe damage within a 100m (150-yard) radius of the bombs Militant group Jemaah Islamiah blamed for the bombings Risk of making martyrs The Bali bombing plotters The Bali bombing plot Timeline: Bali bomb trials

Members of radical groups have gathered to show their respect in the men's villages, where their bodies will taken by helicopter to be buried.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, in Cilacap, near the prison, says the execution took place in the darkness surrounded by forest and a handful of witnesses.

Later, a spokesman for the attorney-general's office confirmed that the three men had been shot.

"The autopsy results show that all three are dead," Jasman Panjaitan told a news conference.

"The family members are now bathing the bodies," he added.

Haji Chozin confirmed that his brothers, Amrozi and Mukhlas, had died.

Beheading request

The deaths will not evoke much sympathy in Indonesia, where most people supported the sentence and believed the executions should have been carried out much sooner, our correspondent says.

Supporters of the bombers have been gathering in their home villages

Officials had said the three would be shot in early November but no date had been announced in advance.

The men had apparently requested no autopsy and they had asked not to be buried in state shrouds, but in material brought specially from their family homes.

Since they were sentenced the bombers made several appeals for leniency, and also filed an unsuccessful appeal to be executed by beheading rather that face a firing squad.

They said beheading was a more humane and Islamic form of execution and that being shot amounted to torture.

However, they also said they were keen to be "martyrs" for their dream of creating a South-east Asian caliphate.

The bombings were blamed on the militant group Jemaah Islamiah, widely regarded as a regional affiliate of the al-Qaeda network, but several key suspects have never been caught.

Malaysian Azahari Husin, alleged to be Jemaah Islamiah's top bomb-making expert and to have helped assemble the Bali bombs, was killed by police in eastern Indonesian in November 2005.

Alleged bomb-maker Noordin Mohammad Top and electronics expert Dulmatin, an Indonesian, are still at large.

No remorse

None of the executed men had ever expressed remorse for the attacks, only saying they regretted that Muslims had been killed.

The two explosions killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists

A last-minute appeal by relatives of the bombers was rejected by a Supreme Court judge earlier this week.

Some of the victims' families, however, had said they opposed the execution.

Susannah Miller, whose brother was killed, said the deaths would be a "state-sponsored route to martyrdom" which would encourage extremists.

Speaking after the executions, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said it was "not a day that fills us with any joy or with any celebration".

There were 88 Australians among those who died in the bombings, as well as 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons.

"My first thoughts are for the families of the victims of both the Bali bombings, it's just in my view a terrible reminder of a terrible, horrible event that occurred to family members," Mr Smith said.

Correspondents say that while executing the men has sent a strong message, it could also put the country's hard-won security at risk if it inspires other extremists to carry out similar acts.

BBC : The Bali bombing plot

The Bali bombing plot

Three Indonesian men - Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas - have been executed for their part in the 2002 Bali bombings. The BBC News website looks at their role and that of others in the devastating attack that killed 202 people.

The area was buzzing with foreign tourists when the bomb went off

The seeds of the October 2002 Bali bombing plot were probably sown in a hotel room in southern Thailand 10 months earlier.

At a secret meeting of operatives from South East Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah, a man known as Hambali is believed to have ordered a new strategy of hitting soft targets, such as nightclubs and bars rather than high-profile sites like foreign embassies.

But it was not until August 2002 that Bali was chosen as the place to strike.

According to Ali Imron, who was jailed for life for his part in the attacks, it was at a meeting in a house in Solo, central Java, that "field commander" Imam Samudra announced the plan to bomb Bali, and the main agents in the plot first came together.

Click here to see a map showing where the bombs exploded

Bali was chosen "because it was frequented by Americans and their associates", Ali Imron has said. He quoted Imam Samudra as saying it was part of a jihad, or holy war, to "defend the people of Afghanistan from America".

In fact, more Australians and Indonesians would die than Americans, prompting speculation that the plotters were poorly informed, or manipulated by other people still at large.

Hambali, who is currently in US custody in Guantanamo Bay, is believed to have been the South East Asian contact for Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

But he is not thought to have played an active part in the Bali plotting.

Some of the suspected perpetrators of the bombings are still being hunted

Instead, 43-year-old Islamic teacher Mukhlas - also known as Ali Ghufron - was convicted as the overall co-ordinator of the attacks.

Prosecutors said he approved the targets and secured finance for the bombings. Mukhlas himself claimed he just gave the bombers religious guidance.

He also recruited two of his younger brothers, Amrozi and Ali Imron, to play key roles in the attack.

Mukhlas and Imam Samudra are said to have chaired preparatory meetings in western Java during August and September.

Ali Imron said that the Bali attacks were originally planned for 11 September, to mark the first anniversary of the terror attacks on the US.

But the bombs were apparently not ready in time, and the plans had to be postponed.

Final planning

The details of the attack were finalised in Bali between 6 and 10 October.

The bombers apparently all had separate roles.

A man called Idris, who was later jailed for another bomb attack, was accused of gathering funds and arranging transport and accommodation for the bombers.

Amrozi cheered after his sentencing and said he would die a martyr

Amrozi admitted to buying the chemicals and the minivan used in the Sari club blast.

Ali Imron said a man called Dulmatin, who is now believed to be in hiding in the southern Philippines, helped assemble the bombs, and a man called Abdul Ghoni mixed the explosives.

Ali Imron said he helped make the main bomb, used at the Sari club.

He said a van loaded with explosives had been driven to Sari by a man called Jimi, who died in the blast. A man called Iqbal wore a vest with a bomb in it, which he detonated in Paddy's Bar.

"Their duty was to explode the bombs," Ali Imron had said. "They were ready to die."

Iqbal is known to have died in Paddy's Bar. But Ali Imron has also told police that the two bombs exploded prematurely, which could have caught Iqbal out, so it is unclear if he was on a suicide mission.

All the individuals detained for playing a major role in the attacks have been sentenced - and Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra now await execution.

But key suspects were never caught.

These include Azahari Husin, a Malaysian who was alleged to be JI's top bomb-making expert and to have helped assemble the Bali bombs.

He was killed by police in eastern Indonesian in November 2005.

Those still at large include alleged bombmaker Noordin Mohammad Top, another Malaysian man, and Dulmatin.

The attacks which killed 202 peope in the resort of Kuta, Bali, were a team effort - but the aftermath provoked different reactions from those involved.

Police said Imam Samudra stayed in Bali for several days after the bombing to survey the devastation he wrought and observe the reactions of people he affected.

Ali Imron shed tears in court, and repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions.

Amrozi has laughed and joked about his case, and gave a thumbs-up sign when he was convicted. He has said he is happy to die a martyr.

BBC : Profile: Amrozi

One week before a court sentenced him to death for his part in the Bali bombing, Amrozi appeared before the media to sing a song.

"Continue the holy struggle, get rid of Zionists, get rid of the Christian filth. God is great, this is my song," he sang, smiling broadly from behind a prison compound's bars.

It was not the first time Amrozi's behaviour had created surprise.

After his arrest in November 2002, his seeming good humour earned him the sobriquet of "the smiling bomber", as well as the vitriol of the press in Australia, where many of the Bali attack's victims lived.

And he surprised police by saying Americans were their intended victims, when Australians were far more likely visitors to the island.

Amrozi bin Nurhasyim was born in 1962 in the sleepy village of Tenggulun, a few miles inland from the coast of East Java, the fifth of 13 children.

Described as something of a black sheep, Amrozi did not do well at school, appearing more interested in motorbikes and girls.

The Bali blasts killed more than 200 people

His mother, Haji Tariyem, told the BBC that Amrozi was a good boy, who at the time of the Bali attacks was living at home looking after his sick father.

Brother's influence

Villagers in Tenggulun have said that Amrozi left for Malaysia in the late 1980s in search of work, and returned in 1991 with much stronger Islamic beliefs.

While in Malaysia, police said he was reunited with his elder brother, Mukhlas, a deeply religious man and also on trial for the Bali attack.

Amrozi has described Mukhlas as an inspiration to him.

Police said that when Mukhlas returned to Tenggulun, he became more involved in the village's Al Islam boarding school, founded by another of Amrozi's brothers, where about 150 students follow a strictly religious curriculum.

Amrozi is said to have admitted meeting the Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on several occasions - while Mr Ba'asyir was in exile in Malaysia in the 1990s and more recently after the preacher's return in 1998, when he was invited to speak at the Al Islam school.

Mr Ba'asyir is thought to be the founder and spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy, regional network of militants thought to have carried out a number of attacks across South East Asia.

Amrozi angered families of the Bali bombing victims when he was paraded before the media in November waving and laughing, and was quoted as saying that he was "delighted" by the attack because they had destroyed "places of sin".

"With this incident, God willing, many people realised that they had forgotten God and neglected their worship and avoided places of worship," he said.

"Often things we don't like are in fact good for us," he added.

General I Made Mangku Pastika, chief of the investigation, said Amrozi showed no remorse for his involvement.

"He's very calm, very cool... proud of his activities," he said.

Mr Pastika said Amrozi's only regret about the bombing was the fact that most of the dead were Australians rather than Americans.

"He doesn't regret it but he is just unhappy," Mr Pastika added.

Efek Kemenangan Obama, Banyak Bayi Biberi Nama Obama

Para ibu di Kenya menandai kemenangan Barack Obama dalam Pilpres AS dengan memberi nama "Obama" untuk bayi mereka yang baru lahir.

Sebagaimana diberitakan bbc.co.uk. lebih dari setengah bayi lahir di suatu rumah sakit di Kisumu diberi nama Barack atau Michelle Obama, menyusul hasil Pilpres AS tersebut.

Kisumu terletak tidak jauh dari desa kelahiran ayah Obama dan Obama sudah dianggap pahlawan di tempat itu. Daerah itu sedang dalam kemeriahan menyusul kemenangan Obama.

Dari 15 bayi yang lahir di RSUD Provinsi New Nyanza Provincia di Kisumu, Rabu, lima anak laki-laki diberi nama Barack Obama sedangkan tiga perempuan diberi nama Michelle.

Pamela Adhiambo, yang sehari setelah Pilpres di AS melahirkan kembar perempuan-laki-laki, memberi nama bayinya Barack and Michelle Obama.

"Saya memutuskan menggunakan nama mereka sejak jauh hari sebelum pemilihan, jadi meskipun Obama kalah, saya tetap memberi nama anak saya Obama dan Michelle," katanya.

Sebagian dari ibu-ibu tersebut mengagumi pasangan itu dan berharap anak-anak mereka akan terilhami untuk mencapai prestasi yang sama.

Nyonya Adhiambo mengemukakan harapan bahwa nama tersebut akan memotivasi anak-anaknya untuk berusaha keras dan mencapai prestasi seperti Obama.

Adhiambo juga mengundang Obama dan istrinya untuk berkunjung melihat si kembar yang namanya sama dengan presiden AS dan istrinya. [bbc/ant/ais]

clipped from www.rileks.com Efek Kemenangan Obama, Banyak Bayi Biberi Nama Obama