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Suspect 'disgusted' by tourists
16/07/2003 08:54 - (SA)
Denpasar - The alleged field commander of the Bali bombings, Imam Samudra, denied targeting the resort island on Wednesday, but admitted he felt disgusted by the behaviour of foreign tourists there.
"I never mentioned Bali. Why Bali? I don't know," Samudra told his trial here.
But he said he felt "disgusted" when he saw white people drinking liquor and frolicking while he was strolling past Bali's nightclub strips.
"I saw bules (white people) doing vicious things, drinking and adulterous things there," he said. "I felt extremely disgusted."
Samudra also said he saw al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden during three years spent in Afghanistan learning warfare skills and bomb-making but did not speak to him.
Samudra, who could face a firing squad if convicted of the bombings which killed 202 people, said he had wanted to die as a martyr since he was in junior high school.
He also admitted he wrote a web page claiming responsiblity for the blasts.
Samudra, answering questions from judges and prosecutors, said he was obliged to wage war against infidels who oppress Muslims "wherever they are".
"As a Muslim I have a conviction that I have to defend oppressed Muslims, as stipulated by the Koran," he said.
"Islam is a blessing for the universe. If people are being slaughtered in Palestine but we are doing nothing about it, we will be cursed.
"Muslims are like one body. If a body part is hurt, the other parts will feel the pain," he said.
But Samudra, 33, said he was sorry for the death of fellow Muslims in the blasts, which he described as a "side effect".
Police say the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, staged the bombing of mainly Western tourists in two crowded nightspots last October 12 in revenge for perceived injustices to Muslims worldwide. The blasts also killed 38 Indonesians.
Prosecutors say the idea for the bombings and the strategy came from Samudra, while the operation was authorised by another defendant called Mukhlas. Police say Samudra picked the targets and gave the order to carry out the attack.
Samudra admitted he wrote a web page claiming responsiblity for the Bali bombings but said he had not had the chance to post it on the Internet.
"If it had been published it must have been the work of AFP (Australian Federal Police," he said. The force has been involved in the investigation into the Bali bombings.
An Australian federal police expert, Nicholas Klein, testified earlier this month that a statement claiming responsibility for the Bali bombings was found on Samudra's laptop.
Klein said web pages from an Internet site called Istimata, which included a statement claiming responsibility for the Bali bombings, were found along with photos of the bomb victims and information on sharing stolen credit cards.
- AFX
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