Indonesia Marks Somber Anniversary

By Kenneth Conboy

Tomorrow (12 October) marks the fifth anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings that took 202 lives from 22 nations. Prior to October 2002, the Indonesian government had largely been in denial that it harbored religious terrorists. After October 2002, however, the authorities—and especially the police—moved forcefully against religious radicalism.

By the opening of 2003, a dragnet had netted hundreds of extremists across the Indonesian archipelago. Three of the masterminds behind the Bali bombings—Ali Gufron, younger brother Amrozi, and Imam Samudra—all got sentenced to death. While all three initially accepted their fates with much bravado, they have since been doing all in their power to milk the appeals process. Late last month, the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected their final appeal, though the trio now has the option to request a presidential pardon.

As this has been playing out, the Indonesian government has come under increased pressure in recent days to commute their sentences—including multiple requests from Australian groups opposed in principle to the death penalty. This is somewhat controversial, as 88 Australian nationals were among the dead in Bali. (The issue is complicated further by the fact that six Australian drug couriers are currently on death row in Bali, and some in their home country would obviously like to see those sentences commuted as well.)

In a related issue, 1 October was the second anniversary of the 2005 Bali back-pack bombings that claimed almost two dozen lives. Like the 2002 bombings, this was the work of Jemaah Islamiyah—or what is left of it. That Jemaah Islamiyah has not been able to launch another anti-West attack in more than two years speaks to the growing belief that it is a shadow of its former self. To be sure, there are still a handful of highly dangerous terrorists--Noordin Top, Zulkarnaen, Dul Matin, Umar Patek, to name a few--on the loose. But as they are being constantly hounded by the authorities (and some have fled to the southern Philippines), they have obviously been hard pressed to plan and carry out their next strike.

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