2002 Bali bombing
Encyclopedia : 2 : 20 : 200 : 2002 Bali bombing
The 2002 Bali bombing occurred on October 12 2002 in the resort town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209. It is considered the deadliest act of terrorism in Indonesian history. The majority of the dead were foreign tourists, especially Australians, although nearly one-fifth were Indonesian nationals.
A number of Indonesian nationals were sentenced to death for their parts in the bombings and in October 2002 Abu Bakar Bashir; alleged spiritual head of the Jemaah Islamiah organisation often accused of being behind the attacks, was charged over his alleged role in the bombing. In March 2005, Bashir was found guilty of conspiracy over the attacks in Bali and sentenced to 30 months prison. He was released four months early on 14 June, 2006 prompting a "disappointed" reaction from the Australian Prime Minister[link].
The attack
| Bali bombings on October 12, 2002 | |
| Nationality | Deaths |
| Australian | 88 |
| Indonesian | 38 |
| British | 26 |
| American | 7 |
| German | 6 |
| Swedish | 5 |
| Dutch | 4 |
| French | 4 |
| Danish | 3 |
| New Zealander | 3 |
| Swiss | 3 |
| Brazilian | 2 |
| Canadian | 2 |
| Japanese | 2 |
| South African | 2 |
| South Korea | 2 |
| Ecuadorian | 1 |
| Greek | 1 |
| Italian | 1 |
| Polish | 1 |
| Portuguese | 1 |
| Taiwanese | 1 |
| Unknown | 3 |
| Total | 202 |
At 23:05 (15:05 UTC) on 12 October 2002, a bomb hidden in a backpack ripped through Paddy's Bar. The device was small and crude, but killed the backpack owner, likely a suicide operative. The injured immediately fled into the street. Fifteen seconds later, a second much more powerful car bomb of close to 1,000 kg, concealed in a white Mitsubishi van was detonated by remote control in front of the Sari Club. Windows throughout the town were blown out. The explosion left a one meter deep crater [link]. There were scenes of horror and panic inside and outside the bars. The local hospital was unable to cope with the number of injured, particularly burn victims. Many of the wounded, of all nationalities, were flown by the Royal Australian Air Force to hospitals in Darwin and other Australian cities.
Shortly before, a third bomb detonated in the street in front of the American consulate in Bali. This bomb caused a slight injury to one person, and only modest damage. It was packed with excrement for maximum moral damage.
The final death toll was 202, the majority holiday-makers in their 20s and 30s who were in the two bars. Many Balinese/Indonesians working in Kuta also were killed. Hundreds more people suffered horrific burns and other injuries. The largest group among those killed were holiday-makers from Australia with 88 fatalities. The Bali bombing is sometimes called "Australia's September 11" because of the large number of its citizens killed in the attack. Although in absolute terms of numbers killed, the American attacks were many times worse, the numbers become more comparable when Australia's far smaller population is taken into account.
The second largest group of fatalities were Indonesians, largely Balinese locals either working in the venues, residents of destroyed neighbouring homes, or passers-by.
There were many acts of individual heroism. Kossy Halemai, a hotel manager, was singled out for praise with the award of Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2005.
Three bodies remained unidentified and were cremated at Bali in September 2003.
The bomb was at first believed to be made of C4 plastic explosive. However, on 21 October investigators at the scene disclosed that the main portion of the bomb was made of ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer agent and easily available in Indonesia, while C4 is a military grade product and difficult to obtain.
Suspects
The organisation immediately suspected of responsibility for the bombing was Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist group allegedly lead by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir that has been linked in many news reports to the al-Qaeda network. The Indonesian chief of police, General Da'i Bachtiar said that the bombing was the "worst act of terror in Indonesia's history". Other Indonesian ministers stated their belief that the blasts were related to al-Qaeda.
Abu Bakar Bashir, though officially wanted in Singapore and Malaysia, held a news conference on 12 October to deny any involvement. In a number of statements he denied that the bombing had been perpetrated by Indonesians, and blamed the United States for exploding the bomb, claiming that it wasn't possible for Indonesians to construct such a sophisticated device. A limited number of websites have speculated that a small nuclear device was involved, although this conspiracy theory has been completely discounted. [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link].
Aris Munandar (aka Sheik Aris) is a Jemaah Islamiyah associate linked to Bashir. He is believed to have assisted the Bali bomber Amrozi in acquiring some of the explosives used in the Bali bombings. Philippine intelligence considers Munandar to be associated with Mohammad Abdullah Sughayer, a Saudi national suspected of financing the al-Qaeda affiliated Abu Sayyaf Group in southern Philippines. Munandar is still at large.
Indonesian authorities also believe more suspects remain at large. In 2005, Indonesian police arrested 24 additional people suspected of involvement in the Bali attacks and a 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Some were believed to have been making preparations to leave for the Philippines.
Controversy
On October 12, 2005, Australian Broadcaster SBS aired an episode of its documentary series Dateline, called "Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism".
The controversial report which includes extracts from an interview with the former President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid, points to the involvement of the Indonesian Military Intelligence and Police in the 2002 Bali bombing.
Among the sources below are a streaming version of the documentary and a transcript of the program.
Legal proceedings
Initial charges and trials
In April 2003 Indonesian authorities charged Abu Bakar Bashir (also rendered "Ba'asyir") with treason. It was alleged that he tried to overthrow the government and set up an Islamic state. The specific charges against Bashir related to a series of church bombings during Christmas in 2000, and to a plot to bomb United States and other Western interests in Singapore. He was initially not charged over the Bali attack, although he was frequently accused of being the instigator or inspirer of the attack. On 2 September Bashir was acquitted of treason but convicted of lesser charges and sentenced to a prison term of four years. He said he would appeal. On October 15, 2004, he was arrested by the Indonesian authorities and charged with involvement in another bomb attack, which killed 14 people at the J. W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003. Secondary charges in this indictment accused him of involvement in the Bali bombing, the first time he faced charges in relation to this attack. On March 3 2005, Bashir was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the 2003 bombing, but guilty of conspiracy over the 2002 attacks in Bali. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. The Australian, US, and many governments expressed its disappointment that the sentence was too short; in the outcome, Bashir was freed 14 June 2006 having served less than 26 months for his conspiracy[Bashir's release a cause of great pain"]On 30 April 2003, the first charges related to the Bali bombings were made against Amrozi bin Haji Nurhasyim, known as Amrozi, for allegedly buying the explosives and the van used in the bombings. On 8 August he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Another participant in the bombing, Imam Samudra, was sentenced to death on 10 September. Amrozi's brother, Ali Imron, who had expressed remorse for his part in the bombing, was sentenced to life imprisonment on 18 September. A fourth accused, Mukhlas, was sentenced to death on 1 October. All those convicted have said they will appeal, and none of the death sentences have yet been carried out.
The Australian, US, and many other foreign governments expressed satisfaction with the speed and efficiency with which the Indonesian police and courts dealt with the bombing's primary suspects, despite what they characterized as light sentences. All Australian jurisdictions abolished the death penalty more than 30 years ago, but a poll showed that 55% of Australians approved of the death sentences in the Bali cases. The Australian government said it would not ask Indonesia to refrain from using the death penalty.
On 15 August Riduan Isamuddin, generally known as Hambali, described as the operational chief of Jemaah Islamiyah and as al-Qaeda's point man in Southeast Asia, was arrested in Ayutthaya, the old capital one hour's drive north of Bangkok. He is in American custody in an undisclosed location, and has not been charged in relation to the Bali bombing or any other crime. It was reported that the United States is reluctant to hand Hambali over to Indonesian authorities in light of the lenient sentence given to Abu Bakar Bashir.
Constitutional appeals
On July 23, 2004, one of the convicted bombers, Maskur Abdul Kadir, successfully appealed his conviction. He had been tried under retrospective laws which were introduced after the bombing and which were employed to aid the prosecution of those involved in the attack. These laws were used by the prosecution instead of existing criminal laws as they allowed the death penalty to be imposed and lowered certain evidentiary restrictions.
The highest court in Indonesia, the Constitutional Court, found by a margin of five to four that trying the terrorist suspects under these retrospective laws violated Article 28I(1) of the constitution [2]. The minority judges argued that international human rights documents such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allowed an exception to not applying retrospective legislation in the prosecution of crimes against humanity. The majority found that this argument was inconsistent with the text of Article 28I(1) which states that the rights listed there "cannot be limited under any circumstances."
Following this decision, charges related to the bombings against Idris, who had confessed to participating in the attacks to the police and court, were dismissed.
Both the chief of the Constitutional Court, in extra-judicial comments, and the Justice Minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, stated that the decision has no effect on the status of the thirty-two other convictions reached before the Constitutional Court's ruling. The legal status of Kadir, Idris and others who might have their convictions quashed following the ruling on the retrospective law is unclear.
The decision by the Constitutional Court has been seen as an important demonstration of its independence from the government. It is a relatively new body, created after the fall of Soeharto, and this decision was one of the first to overrule the constitutionality of the government's application of a law.
See also
- List of terrorist incidents
- 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing
- 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing
- 2005 Bali bombings
Controversy: Indonesian Government Complicit in Bali Bombing ?
- [SBS Dateline: Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism] Documentary
- [SBS Dateline Transcript]: Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism
External links
- [Remember Bali]: a memorial website
- Australian Broadcasting Corp. Online
- *[News on the Bali bombing]
- *Current affairs program Four Corners: ["The Bali Confessions"] (February 10, 2003)
- [Photographs and writings pertaining to the Bali tragedy]
- [Emptybottle.org]: A weblogger writes (and friends and family gather online) as his friend is caught in the bombing, is hospitalized, and later dies from his wounds.
- Asian Law Centre: [Melbourne University legal analysis of the Constitutional Court's decision] (July 27, 2004)
- [link] Bali’s message of dialogue- includes the Bali Declaration on Building Interfaith Harmony July 2005
- [link] Two photographs from the site of the bombing
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.