2002 Bali bombings
| 2002 Bali bombing | |
|---|---|
| File:2002 Bali Bombing.jpg A huge plume of smoke and fire can be seen emerging from downtown Kuta | |
| Location | Bali, Indonesia |
| Date | 12 October 2002 23:05 (UTC+8) |
| Target | Two nightclubs, US Consular office |
Attack type | Suicide bombing, car bomb, and other bombing |
| Deaths | 202 |
| Injured | 209 |
| Perpetrators | Jemaah Islamiyah members |
The 2002 Bali bombing occurred on October 12 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals (including 88 Australians), and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 were injured.
The attack involved the detonation of three bombs: a backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber; a large car bomb, both of which were detonated in or near popular nightclubs in Kuta; and a third much smaller device detonated outside the United States consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage.
Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death. Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was found guilty of conspiracy, and sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.[1] Riduan Isamuddin, generally known as Hambali and the suspected former operational leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is in U.S. custody in an undisclosed location, and has not been charged in relation to the bombing or any other crime.[2]
The attack
| Nationality | Deaths |
|---|---|
| Australian | 88 |
| Indonesian | 38 |
| British | 24 |
| 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 suicide bomber inside the nightclub Paddy's Bar detonated a bomb in his backpack, causing many patrons, with or without injuries, to immediately flee into the street. Fifteen seconds later, a second and much more powerful car bomb hidden inside a white Mitsubishi van, was detonated by another suicide bomber outside the Sari Club, located opposite Paddy's Bar. The van was also rigged for detonation by remote control incase the second bomber had a sudden change of heart. Damage to the densely populated residential and commercial district was immense, destroying neighbouring buildings and shattering windows several blocks away. The car bomb explosion left a one meter deep crater [3].
The local Sanglah hospital was ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the disaster and was overwhelmed with the number of injured, particularly burn victims. Many of the injured were flown to the relatively close proximity of Darwin and Perth for specialist burns treatment.
A comparatively small bomb detonated outside the U.S. consulate in Denpasar, which is thought to have exploded shortly before the two Kuta bombs, caused minor injuries to one person and property damage was minimal. It was reportedly packed with human excrement.[4]
A report released on August 2005 by the US Indonesia Society desribed the events as such;[2]
The investigators were thus able to recreate the bombers activities. Amrozi, Idris and Ali Imron had simply walked into a dealership and purchased a new Yamaha motorbike, after asking how much they could re-sell it for if they returned it in a few days. Imron used the motorbike to plant the small bomb outside the U.S. Consulate. Idris then rode the motorbike as Imron drove two suicide bombers in the Mitsubishi to the nightclub district in Kuta. He stopped near the Sari Club, instructed one suicide bomber to put on his explosives vest and the other to arm the vehicle bomb. The first bomber headed to Paddy's Pub. Idris then left the second bomber, who had only learned to drive in a straight line, to drive the minivan the short distance to the Sari Club. Idris picked up Imron on the Yamaha and the duo headed
back into Denpasar. Idris dialed the number of the Nokia to detonate the bomb at the Consulate. The two suicide bombers exploded their devices. Imron and Idris dropped the motorbike at the mosque where it eventually
attracted the attention of the caretaker
The final death toll was 202, mainly comprising Western tourists and holiday-makers in their 20s and 30s who were in or near Paddy's Bar or the Sari Club, but also including many Balinese Indonesians working or living nearby, or simply passing by. Hundreds more people suffered horrific burns and other injuries. The largest group among those killed were holidayers from Australia with 88 fatalities.
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 were never identified and were cremated at Bali in September 2003.
The car bomb was initially thought to have consisted of C4, a military grade plastic explosive which is difficult to obtain. However, on 21 October investigators at the scene disclosed that the main portion of the bomb consisted of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer agent readily available in Indonesia.
Suspects
The organisation immediately suspected of responsibility for the bombing was Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist group allegedly led by radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir[1] that has been linked in many news reports to the al-Qaeda network..[5] A week after the blasts Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera put to air an audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama Bin Laden saying that the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor.[6]
"You will be killed just as you kill, and will be bombed just as you bomb," "Expect more that will further distress you."
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. It is now known that al-Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri contacted Jemaah Islamiyah in 2002 asking them to attack a 'soft target' in Indonesia. 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.
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. The USIS report described Amrozis arrest as such;
General Pastika ordered his men to make the arrest early the next morning, November . Amrozi was asleep in the rear of the house. According to Greg Barton's account, Amrozi did not attempt to escape, but laughed instead, later exclaiming,
''Gosh, you guys are very clever,how did you find me?" Amrozi's mobile phone a particularly important piece of evidence was seized during his arrest. Bags of chemical ingredients for bombs were found in his workshop and soil samples taken from outside his home showed traces of the primary chemical used in the Sari Club bomb. Police found receipts for the purchase of chemicals used to make the bombs, as well as a list of expenses incurred in making the bombs. Further search of Amrozi's home revealed copes of speeches by Usama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaeda, and Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical Indonesian Muslim cleric reputed to be the leader of . The speeches exhorted listeners to wage jihad. Police also uncovered training manuals on ambush techniques and numerous articles on jihad. Under questioning Amrozi revealed the names of six others involved in the bombing: Ali Imron, Imam Samudra, Dul Matin, Idris, Abdul Ghani and Umar Patek. But Amrozi's mobile phone proved to be the real catch. Indonesian investigators were able to print out a list of calls he had made immediately before, during and after the bombing, as well as the names and telephone numbers in the phone's memory. Pastika kept Amrozi's arrest secret for two days. After it was announced, Polri and monitored the sudden flurry of communications among numbers listed in Amrozi's telephone before the calls abruptly ceased. The investigators were able to identify the location of a num-
ber of the telephones, leading to a series of arrests
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.
An October 12, 2005 story in Australian broadcaster SBS's documentary series Dateline, called "Inside Indonesia's War on Terrorism", argued that the Indonesian military or police may have been involved in executing the attack. [7]
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 on Christmas Eve 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[8]
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, Ali Gufron, the brother-in-law of Noordin Mohammed Top was sentenced to death on 1 October.
Ali
Gufron, alias Mukhlas, told police that he was the head of one of Jemaah Islamiyah's four cells and had ordered the Bali bombings. He also confessed that a fellow leader Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali, had provided the funds for the attacks. He told police, I do not know for sure the source of the aforementioned money from Hambali; most probably it was from Afghanistan, that is, from Sheikh Usama bin Laden. As far as I know, Hambali did not have a source of funds except from Afghanistan. Another operative, Wan Min bin Wan Mat, revealed to police that he had given Mukhlas money, at Hambali's request and that he understood part of the
money had come directly from al-Qaeda.
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, Thailand, 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.[who?] 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[who?] 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.
Long Road to Heaven
In 2006, Long Road to Heaven, an Indonesian feature film about the bombings was released by Kalyana Shira Films. The film was directed by Enison Sinaro and written by Wong Wai Leng and Andy Logam-Tan. It stars Raelee Hill, Mirrah Foulkes, Alex Komang, Surya Seputra, John O'Hare, Sarah Treleaven, and Joshua Pandelaki.
It tells the story during three different times: the planning a few months before the bombing, its execution in 2002, and the trials in 2003 through the viewpoints of both the victims and the bombers. The story is not chronologically linear, starting with the explosion and then moving from time to time so as all three plots are culminated one after the other. At the beginning of each scene, subtitles tell the date and location of the scene.
References
- ^ a b The Age newspaper ""Bashir's release a cause of great pain."". Retrieved 2006-09-19.
- ^ "Indonesia seeks access US held Hambali". The Age. September 8, 2006.
- ^ Australian Department of Defence Aspects of forensic responses to the Bali bombings
- ^ "Bali bombings 2002". International Activities. Australian Federal Police. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
- ^ [1]
- ^ 'Bin Laden' voices new threat to Australiathe Age November 14, 2002
- ^ "Scoop" Independent NewsSBS Documentary: Inside Indonesia's War on Terror
- ^ The Age newspaper Bashir's release a cause of great pain
See also
- List of terrorist incidents
- 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing
- 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing
- 2005 Bali bombings
External links
- News on the Bali bombing
- Current affairs program Four Corners: "The Bali Confessions" (February 10, 2003)
- Asian Law Centre: Melbourne University legal analysis of the Constitutional Court's decision (July 27, 2004)
- Bali’s message of dialogue- includes the Bali Declaration on Building Interfaith Harmony July 2005
- Indonesia's War on TerrorUS Indonesia Society
