Heri Retnowati, Tenggulun, Indonesia – Three Indonesian militants executed on Sunday for the 2002 Bali bombings were buried by their families at ceremonies attended by thousands of sobbing supporters shouting "Allahu akbar" (God is great).
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 12, 2002 killed 202 people including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians.
The bombers' bodies were flown from the prison by helicopter to their home towns – 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 brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi were lowered into the ground. After the burial, supporters stood in the rain and prayed for the bombers.
Imam Samudra was buried in a private ceremony attended by just his family and friends.
The attorney general's spokesman, Jasman Pandjaitan, said the bombers, who asked not to be blindfolded during the execution, were cooperative. "Only one bullet hit the victims, right on the left chest hitting the heart," Pandjaitan told a news conference. "There was no resistance and they were very cooperative."
Earlier, thousands of Indonesians poured onto the streets for the funerals of the three militants causing some clashes between police and emotional supporters. "Looking at this, I feel sad, but then I am also proud that he is a Mujahid (Muslim fighter)," said Nuranda, a woman who came to offer her condolences to Samudra's family.
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. Some jostled to touch the body or help carry the bier.
In Tenggulun, thousands of militant Islamists from groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front had gathered, shadowed by armed police and many reporters.
People chanted "Goodbye Syuhada (heroes)" and "Allahu Akbar" as the bodies of Mukhlas and Amrozi were taken from the mosque to an Islamic boarding school where controversial cleric Abu Bakar Bashir prayed for the brothers.
Some clashed with police as authorities tried to prevent them from getting too close to the bodies.
Among those in the streets were followers of 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.
Tight security
Indonesia tightened security amid fears of revenge attacks as tensions ran high, but one analyst said the executions were unlikely to spark "active terrorism."
"People need to be vigilant and there's a possibility of someone responding to the appeal of the three dead men but I don't think people should believe that there will automatically be some active terrorism," Sidney Jones, a security expert from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told Reuters.
Although there have been no major bomb attacks since 2005, Indonesia is considered still at risk. 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.
Australia immediately issued a travel warning for citizens going to Indonesia and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warned of possible reprisals.
"We continue to have credible information that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia," Smith said on Australian TV. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his thoughts were with the families of the victims. "Their lives remain shattered. They have been changed fundamentally by that murder," he told reporters.
Although new attacks targeting bars and tourist hangouts were possible, Jemaah Islamiah's network was fractured and sympathy for the bombers was low, said a leading Australian analyst.
"There will be some people in Indonesian society who regard them as martyrs, but they will be a very small proportion," said Damien Kingsbury, an associate professor at Deakin University. Jemaah Islamiyah's "willingness and capacity to carry out bomb attacks is much reduced," he said.
About a hundred Balinese, including some survivors, prayed at a memorial near the blast site in Kuta. The Balinese widow of a security officer killed in the blasts said she hoped the executions would mark some closure.
"So, let the past be behind us and I hope there will not be any revenge from their families and supporters," said Wayan Rasmi. The body of her husband was never found after the blasts.
[Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Telly Nathalia in Jakarta, Crack Pallinggi in Cilacap and Luh De Suriyani in Denpasar; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Jerry Norton.]