Thousands of Indonesians took to the streets today for the funerals of three militants executed yesterday for the 2002 Bali bombings. There were some clashes between police and 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 12th, 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.
Some friends and supporters chanted "Live nobly or die as martyrs" until the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi were lowered into the ground. After the burial, supporters stood in the rain and prayed for the bombers. Samudra was buried in a private ceremony attended by just his family and friends.
The attorney general's spokesman said the bombers, who asked not to be blindfolded during the execution, were co-operative. In an interview with Reuters last year, the militants said their only regret was that some Muslims were killed.
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.
In Tenggulun, thousands of militant Islamists from groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front, some wearing white skull caps, had gathered, shadowed by armed police.
People chanted "Goodbye Syuhada [heroes]" and "Allahu Akbar [God is great]" as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi were taken from the mosque to an Islamic boarding school.
Some clashed with police as authorities tried to prevent them from getting too close to the bodies, but the funerals passed off relatively peacefully.
Several embassies, including those of the US and Australia, urged citizens to keep a low profile, saying they could be targeted.
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 has tightened security due to fears of revenge attacks, and Australia issued a travel warning for citizens going to Indonesia. "We continue to have credible information that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
Jemaah Islamiah said the Bali attacks were intended to deter foreigners as part of a drive to make Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, part of a larger Islamic caliphate.
About 85 per cent of Indonesia's 226 million people are Muslim, and most are moderate, but a militant minority has emerged since former president Suharto's fall in 1998.
Police are still seeking Noordin Top, a Malaysian considered a main figure behind a series of bombings, including a second set of blasts in Bali in 2005 which killed more than 20 people.
Reuters