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| Southeast Asia |
| Tourists motivated Bali attack |
| 2003-06-12 |
| Smiling bomber Amrozi was inspired to launch an attack on Bali after his former Australian boss revealed the tourist island was a haven for sinful behaviour by westerners. Yesterday, for the first time, Amrozi explained his motivation for helping kill 202 people in Kuta, saying that he and his group "hate Bule", or westerners. Giving evidence in his own defence, Amrozi told how his Australian boss at a Malaysian construction company where he worked in the early 1990s had told him that Bali was an easy target for westerners wanting to drink and take drugs and that westerners there were out of control. Either his boss was a prude as well, or he was bragging about his last vacation. His hatred had germinated and cemented his belief that violence was the best panacea. Religion of Peace(TM) at work. At the conclusion of his three-hour stint in the witness box, Amrozi asked Chief Judge I Made Karna for permission to address the court. "I know although I will be punished I want all the community, Indonesia and Bali especially and all over the world to hear what I have in my heart," Amrozi declared. He then embarked on a social critique of the world, blaming TV, the internet and bars for waning belief in all religions, noting that in Australia churches are now empty. And he justified bombing Bali by saying that while it had caused material devastation, it was for the island's long-term moral good. Falling morals were a far more serious ailment than material damage. "If I don't commit the bombs, what will Bali be like in five or 10 years – the same as Singapore and Malaysia, that I have visited. They are [failing] because they don't hold tightly to their religion," Amrozi said. "I mean, who wants to live in a city with electricity, running water and clean streets?" Amrozi dealt his own defence case a major blow by his evidence that he knew the chemicals he bought and sent to Bali were to be used for a bomb and that he knew how to make explosives. His lawyers just want to get this asshole off their hands and hope no one remembers they were on his defense team. And when asked who was the planner of the Bali bombing, he replied: "All of us." Condemning himself from his own mouth, Amrozi also confessed to helping make a bomb used in an August 2000 attack on the Philippines ambassador in Jakarta, which left the diplomat injured and one person dead. Asked if he felt any regret about the October 12 attack, the answer was an adamant "no". The only sorrow he felt was for the Indonesian victims. Even if the court wanted to let him off, I don't think they can now. |
| Posted by:Steve |