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  • Tensions following Bali bomb burials

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Tensions following Bali bomb burials

The execution of three of the Bali bombers has led to heightened tension in Indonesia. Police clashed with supporters of the militant Islamist group Jemaah Islamiah after its members Imam Samudra, 38, Mukhlas, 48, and Amrozi, 46 - were executed by firing squad. They had been convicted of planning two explosions on Bali's Kuta strip on October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people including more than 20 Britons. 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 coffin. Supporters chanted "Goodbye Syuhada (heroes)" and "Allahu Akbar" as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi were taken from the mosque to an Islamic boarding school. 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. Susanna Miller of the UK Bali Bombings Victims' Group criticised the executions, saying: "If you undermine the deterrent by effectively encouraging, allowing these people to be seen as martyrs and encouraging the Islamist cause then no it makes a mockery of justice." 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 percent 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.

ITN | November 9, 2008Watch more videos from ITN

Tags:. .kuta. .samudra. .caliphate. .jostling. .jemaah











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