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Bali: Would-be martyrs get 'near to
God'
By Richard S Ehrlich
JAKARTA - Accused Bali bomber Imam Samudra
welcomed on Monday prosecution demands for his death,
claiming it would bring him "near to God", amid an
international debate about whether or not executing
terrorists makes them martyrs.
"I'd like to say
'thank you' to the prosecutor team, which has demanded
the death sentence. Because in death we live peacefully,
and in death we draw near to God," Samudra told a court
in Bali.
"If I've made mistakes I'm sorry. If
the victims of the bombs were Indonesians and Muslims,
I'm sorry," he said. "But if the victims came from
countries which are allies of the United States, then
I'm pleased," Samudra said at the start of his defense
plea during his trial for the October 2002 bombing that
killed 202 people, most of them Australians and other
foreign tourists.
Newspaper editorials,
psychologists and politicians in Indonesia, Australia
and the United States, meanwhile, have been debating the
value of killing the terrorists convicted in Bali and
elsewhere, compared with keeping them in jail for life.
"One way or another, they will die for what they
believe," University of Indonesia psychologist Saparinah
Sadli told the Jakarta Post. "They have anticipated this
from the very beginning, and this explains why Amrozi
and other suspects in the Bali blast seem to take the
legal process lightly," she said.
The
psychologist was referring to Amrozi bin Nurhasyim -
also known as "the smiling bomber" because of his
maniacal grin throughout his trial. Amrozi, a
41-year-old mechanic, received a death sentence last
Thursday for buying the explosives and vehicle used in
the Bali bombing.
"What [confidence] he has
displayed during the trial could convince others not to
be afraid to follow his path," Saparinah said.
Airlangga University psychiatrist Soetandyo
Wingnjosoebroto said, "I can categorize him as a
mentally healthy man. I assume he has strongly been
indoctrinated by higher authorities in his
organization," Soetandyo added.
Washington has
said that the Bali bombers belonged to Jemaah Islamiyah,
a Southeast Asian Islamic "terrorist" group linked to
al-Qaeda. "The court's decision is a clear sign that
Indonesia is serious about combating terrorism," US
State Department spokeswoman Tara Rigler was quoted as
saying after Amrozi's death sentence was announced.
Australia's media echoed that line and said
leniency might imply that Bali's court was cowed by the
JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, which killed 11
people on August 5 - two days before the judge announced
Amrozi's punishment. "It took courage to stare down the
implicit threat of the attack on the Marriott Hotel,"
said The Australian newspaper in an editorial.
The Sydney Morning Herald, however, suggested
that "for operational reasons, Amrozi may be more useful
to investigators alive, in custody". If Amrozi is
executed, it warned, "the fear then must be that the
martyr's death he craves will simply rally more zealots
to his bloody cause".
The debate over the Bali
bombers' fate shows the power and threat that convicted
terrorists possess even after they are caught and
sentenced - whether or not they are executed.
By
imprisoning Amrozi for life, for example, he could spend
decades as a mouthpiece expressing terrorists'
statements and inspire extremists to seize hostages or
commit other acts in demand that he be set free.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard supported
Amrozi's execution but met with criticism because
Australia does not have capital punishment.
"I
know some people disagree with me, some people say that
I should be saying, 'Don't execute the man,'" Howard
said on Friday. "I'm not going to do that, because I do
respect the judicial processes of Indonesia," the prime
minister said.
"When you're fighting barbarism
and terrorism, I think you need to be careful not to
descend to barbaric acts yourself," responded Australian
Senator Andrew Bartlett, leader of the Democrat Party.
"In my view, the death penalty is a barbaric act that we
need to oppose in all circumstances," Bartlett said.
Some of the Bali bombing's British victims were
represented by a group that said it would ask Indonesia
to lighten Amrozi's punishment to life in prison.
On Thursday, when the judge read out the
execution sentence against Amrozi, several Australians
and other relatives sitting in the public gallery
applauded his pending demise. Upon hearing the clapping,
however, Amrozi turned to face them, gave a thumbs-up
sign, grinned, chuckled and nodded his head as if he was
receiving an ovation for his deadly performance.
It was the first death sentence handed down by
the court against a key suspect in the Bali blast.
Amrozi's lawyers, meanwhile, filed an appeal
against his death sentence that could delay any
execution for months or years. "He [Amrozi] has signed a
letter authorizing lawyers to make an appeal," lawyer
Wirawan Adnan said.
A 14-man firing squad
traditionally carries out death sentences in Indonesia,
but only one bullet is live and the other 13 are blanks,
to lessen the mental and emotional stress on the
executioners.
Two of Amrozi's brothers are among
more than 30 other men on trial for the Bali assault.
They include Samudra, described as an engineer and
computer expert, who reportedly learned to become a
field commander in Afghanistan.
After returning
to Indonesia, Samudra allegedly helped organize Amrozi
and others to put together the bomb that destroyed the
Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in Kuta Beach, Bali.
"I saw lots of whiteys dancing and lots of
whiteys drinking there," Samudra reportedly told police
in a confession. "That place ... was a meeting place for
US terrorists and their allies," he allegedly confessed.
Two suicide bombers, both named Iqbal, died in
twin blasts timed 30 seconds apart.
"I was
morally responsible for telling [the bombers] to carry
out attacks against white people," Samudra told the
court on June 11. "Waging war against the United States
was my idea, but you should ask Amrozi about the idea of
Bali. Amrozi planned it."
His trial in Bali, on
charges of plotting terrorist acts, started on June 2.
Whether Amrozi or other executed
bombers are hailed as martyrs or not, Indonesia still
faces future terrorist assaults, authorities
said.
"The 17th
of August is Indonesia's National Day, and that is a day
when we think it is possible there could be a terrorist
attack in the central Jakarta area," Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer told reporters on August 6.
(Copyright 2003 Richard S Ehrlich.)
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