Camelia Pasandaran & Bati Kartini – Two suspected terrorists killed earlier this month in Indonesia's Central Java province may have been able to ingratiate themselves with community members in life, but in death, and with their true identities revealed, they have become outcasts and targets of scorn.
Residents of Kudus and Purbalingga districts in Central Java rallied on Wednesday against the planned burials in their communities of two of the four suspected terrorists killed during a police raid earlier this month.
Bagus Budi Pranoto, also known as Urwah, and Ario Sudarso, also known as Aji, were killed during a raid on a house located on the outskirts of Solo, Central Java, along with Hadi Susilo, a religious teacher who rented the house, and Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorist, Malaysian Noordin M Top.
Muhammad Kurniawan, a lawyer for the families of Bagus and Ario from the Islamic Study and Action Center, said the families of the two would arrive in Jakarta on Friday to view and possibly take the bodies home.
The bodies of all four killed in Solo are currently at the Police Hospital morgue in East Jakarta. Bagus is expected to be buried in Kudus and Ario in Purbalingga.
There has been no word from Hadi's family on when they will retrieve the body from Jakarta, but the Solopos newspaper quoted the head of Kagokan ward in Solo, Katino, as saying that residents were helping the parents prepare a burial plot at Pracimoloyo public cemetery.
Katino said Susilo's parents were good citizens and that their neighbors were not influenced by banners that appeared early on Wednesday near at several busy intersections in the city stating "Solo rejects the bodies of terrorists."
Ibrahim, who was suspected of involvement in July's twin hotel bombings in Jakarta that left nine people dead, had to be buried in the capital after residents in Kuningan, West Java, opposed plans to bury him there. Ibrahim was killed in a police raid on his hideout in Temanggung, Central Java, earlier this month.
In Mijen village in Kudus, people calling themselves the Public Forum for Peace rallied in front of the village hall and later at the local district office, demanding that Bagus not be buried in the village. They said Bagus was no longer a resident of Mijen because it had been years since he had lived in his parents' home.
On Wednesday morning, Solo residents were greeted by banners placed along at least eight major intersections denouncing plans to bury Bagus and Ario in the area. The banners were taken down later in the day.
It was reported that Ario's wife, Titi Rochyati, with the approval of the village chief, had already prepared a grave for him in Karangreja, Purbalingga. However, residents of Karangtenggak, a neighboring village, protested the plan.
Meanwhile, the National Police have yet to receive news from Noordin's family in Malaysia regarding his burial plans. "We haven't heard from the family when the body is going to be taken," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Sukarna said.
Amidhan, chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), said that as Muslims, the four should be allowed a burial, but added that he understood the public protests as a form of punishment for having tarnished the image of home villages or cities. "It should be a good lesson for those who want to be terrorists so that they think twice," he said.