Indonesia Tightens Security for Bali Bombers Execution

By NINIEK KARMINI / AP WRITER

JAKARTA—Police tightened security across Indonesia on Friday as authorities braced for potential terrorist attacks ahead of the executions of three Islamic militants convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.

Tourist destinations, vital installations and Western oil companies were under heavy guard, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.

The government has said that the three men sentenced to death five years ago for planning and helping carry out the October 12, 2002, twin nightclub attacks will go before a firing squad within days.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron have shown no remorse for the bombings and have publicly expressed hope that their executions would trigger revenge attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Most analysts have said reaction will likely be small and limited to a show of solidarity at the men's funerals.

But police were not taking any chances, Nataprawira said.

"We're on alert for potential terrorist attacks," he said.

In addition to beefed up security elsewhere in the country, 1,000 police have been sent to Cilacap, the town nearest to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held, Nataprawira said.
Those forces include members of an elite mobile brigade and anti-terrorism unit.

The Bali attacks—allegedly funded by al-Qaeda—were carried out by members and associates of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant group blamed for at least three other suicide bombings in Indonesia since then.

The last bombings occurred in 2005, killing 21 people in multiple blasts in Bali cafes and restaurants.

Samudra, Nurhasyim and Ghufron claimed they carried out the Bali bombings to avenge the deaths of Muslims in US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the victims in the twin blasts were foreign tourists, including 88 from Australia.