* Looking for excuses not to execute the convicted killers:
Bombers’ executions ‘may enrage mobs‘
Islamic militants Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra could be executed at any time over the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.
Indonesia’s Attorney General Hendarman Supandji has said authorities want the trio put before a firing squad “as soon as possible” and before the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in early September.
Terrorism expert Sidney Jones, of the International Crisis Group, said police needed to work hard to prepare for a potentially angry backlash following the executions, particularly when their bodies are returned to their families.
“I think they will be treated as martyrs, I think there will be massive crowds, particularly in Lamongan in East Java where Mukhlas and Amrozi are from,” said Ms Jones, who is opposed to the death penalty.
“Depending on how police respond to those crowds, there could be some instances of mob violence.
“I think it’s less likely that we will see a terrorist attack in retaliation, simply because it’s very difficult to plan an attack for a specific time because so many things can go wrong.
“I think the people most committed to undertaking that kind of retaliation are on the run in a way that would make it difficult for them to actually undertake such an act.”
But she said: “It’s not impossible, it could happen.
“There could be people in cells that we don’t know about who could be planning something but I think the likelihood is not great.”
Ms Jones said any violence was unlikely to spread to major Indonesian cities, such as Jakarta and Surabaya.
“I think that these people (the bombers) are so far beyond what most Indonesians regard as acceptable … that there won’t be a major outpouring or outcry after their deaths, in either Jakarta or other large cities like Surabaya or Makasar,” she said.
“Everything has to do with how the executions are prepared beforehand and how the crowd reaction is handled afterwards, but I think the police can probably do an adequate job.”
Ms Jones said the men should not be executed because they would be treated as martyrs.
But if Indonesia pressed ahead, the men should be put to death well before the holy month of Ramadan, she said.
“I think, for the record, that the fact that this is an issue at all underscores how important it is that the death penalty be abolished in Indonesia,” ms Jones said.
“If these people had been sentenced to life imprisonment we wouldn’t be facing a situation of major questions now.”
Families of Australian victims say they have been told by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that the executions are imminent.
Indonesia’s Supreme Court recently dismissed the trio’s final legal challenge.
The country appears to be ramping up its use of the death penalty, despite a global push to eliminate state-sanctioned executions.
Three prisoners were executed on the weekend, including a mother and son who murdered a family 20 years ago.
The country has now executed six prisoners in less than a month, resuming executions in June after a 14-month lapse.
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>>”Indonesia fears ‘backlash’ if Bali bombers executed
Joe Grey>>Muslim baby murderer paraded as hero in Lebanon. Indonesian govt afraid of backlash from the citizenry if Muslim mass murderers executed. If you don’t oppose Muslims you are a part of the problem.
Actually. executing these thugs is not, IMHO,´a good idea. It gives the indonesian police thugs a percieved “moral” right to execute any westerner, and creates martyrs out of the 3 terrorists.
Backlash? All those “moderate” Koranists should cheer such an act-after all, these guys profaned their belief system by misunderstanding it, right?
For those countries who think “We don’t dare do anything our sensitive Muslims might regard as offensive because they might get REALLY ANGRY and start rioting and burning cars”…
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You’ve already given up your sovereignty when you get to this point.
The State has to enforce its laws and carry out its stated policies, period. IF you think “restive groups” might riot in the streets, have the army standing by with tear gas and fire hoses and rubber bullets. If you let fear of a savage minority dictate your responses, you’re already lost.
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Our problem in the West is we don’t know how to handle Islam under the law. Whatever we decide to do about followers of Islam will set a precedent for treatment of other groups our governments might consider “undesirable” or “a threat to to public order”… we don’t want to make it easy for The State to quash other groups of dissidents or freethinkers. But until we have a good policy in place, and since there is no absolute right to immigration, we DO need to halt Muslim immigration. I was going to say “we also need to closely monitor Muslims once they’re here”, but then we’re back to worrying about “broadening police powers/ becoming a police state” which is what we DON’T want to do…
And of course, government doesn’t want to touch any of this with a 10-foot (or hundred-meter) pole, so our fearless leaders (more properly, our “continual-seekers-of-re-election”) won’t bring it up and won’t acknowledge there’s even any possibility of a problem. They’ll keep telling the rest of us voters that we’re alarmists, and go on saying that the “jihad hype” is only so much hot air by a tiny minority of Islamist blowhards. Until the next 9/11 or 7/7; at some point implacable reality will force our elected representatives to finally do what they were hired for. Won’t it?