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Southeast Asia
Bali bombing suspect apologises to victims’ families
2003-02-11
A man who says that he carried out last year's Bali bombings today apologised to the victims' families and showed the media how he and accomplices claim to have assembled the explosives that killed 192 people, most of them foreign tourists.
Wearing a fake suicide bomb vest over his blue prison uniform, Ali Imron staged a bizarre news conference, during which he confessed to coordinating last October's attacks on the Sari club and Paddy's bar in Kuta. Speaking at a police headquarters, and at times appearing more like a talk show host than an alleged mass murderer, he boasted of his bomb-making skills and voiced remorse for the carnage, which has been blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked Islamist group.
"My capabilities are something to be proud of, but ... they were used for a wrong purpose," said Mr Imron, who claimed that he learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan, and has admitted to helping plan the October 12 attack. "I hope that there will be no more arguments about who really detonated the Bali bombs," he added. "In my heart, I regret this. I want to apologise to the victims' families in Indonesia and to foreign families."
Thank you. Now go stand against that wall.
After his arrest late last year, Mr Imron angered the families of the dead and maimed by smiling and waving to police and reporters. Investigators have rounded up 29 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah since the bombings, including Mr Imron. However, they have struggled to convince a sceptical public that a group of Indonesians had planned and carried out the bombings, despite confessions from many suspects.
As a result, detectives have staged a series of re-enactments since December, aimed at illustrating how the attack was executed. Today's focused on how the organisation allegedly put together a bomb that was carried into Paddy's nightclub, and a much larger device, placed inside a Mitsubishi minivan, detonated outside the packed Sari club on the opposite side of the street. Mr Imron showed how his group allegedly built the bomb in the minivan, and said that it had taken eight days to assemble. Investigators have estimated that it weighed up to 100kg (220lb). But today, Mr Imron claimed that it weighed more than a ton and consisted of a mix of potassium chlorate, sulphur and aluminum powder. Later in the presentation, Mr Imron strapped on a vest featuring eight mock pipe bombs with explosive cords connected to a detonator switch. It was the kind of device that one of the terrorists was wearing when he allegedly blew himself up inside Paddy's.
Indonesian authorities say that Jemaah Islamiyah turned its attentions to Bali after alleged plans to bomb Western interests in Singapore were thwarted. Mr Imron said that Bali had been chosen because Jemaah Islamiyah thought that it was a popular tourist spot for Americans. "We picked [Bali] because we wanted to target the US and its allies," he said.
This contradicts the statement yesterday that they targeted Australians because of East Timor.
The first trials in the case are expected to begin next month in Bali, police say. The defendants will likely face possible death sentences under newly adopted anti-terrorism legislation.
Go straight to the firing squad, do not pass go, do not collect 72 virgins.
Posted by:Steve

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