Relief after bombers' execution

2008-11-09 09:50

Madeleine Coorey

Sydney - The executions of three Islamists over the 2002 Bali bombings was met with relief in Australia on Sunday, as victims and their families said they were still struggling to cope with the terror attacks.

"It's just utter relief," survivor Peter Hughes told CNN on the news that bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra had been killed by an Indonesian firing squad overnight.

Hughes, who sustained horrific burns after a suicide bomber detonated himself within metres of him, said the executions took him back to the moment the first bomb went off and he found himself surrounded by burning bodies.

"We had to fight for life pretty hard back then and it's been a struggle every day since," he said.

Miserable lives in jail

"So from my perspective these guys set about mass murder and they've paid the highest penalty."

But he added: "It doesn't feel good."

Trent Thompson, whose brother Clint was among the 88 Australians killed, said he would have been happy if the bombers had lived long, miserable lives in jail but he was pleased they would no longer be able to spread their views.

"I guess the overwhelming feeling isn't joy because they're dead, but it's definitely relief that we don't have to continue with the circus," he told national news agency AAP.

"It hasn't bought anyone back. Everyone is still dead.

Sydneysider Erik de Haart, who lost six friends in the bombings that killed 202 people when they ripped through a crowded nightclub area popular with Western tourists, said he was still coming to terms with the news.

"What it does is just give us a sense of justice, that finally someone has been punished," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Former magistrate and strong opponent of the death penalty, Brian Deegan, whose son Josh died in Bali, said time had softened his grief but it would never disappear.

"The tears don't roll quite as often, that absolute gut ache has diminished a bit. But they don't go away," he told national news agency AAP.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, whose government opposes the death penalty, said the development could bring some relief to victims and their families even as he said he would encourage efforts to end capital punishment.

Still feel the pain

"It's not a day which fills us with any joy or with any celebration," Smith said in a television interview with the ABC.

"It's just, in my view, a terrible reminder of a terrible, horrible event that occurred to family members. It's a terrible day for the families. For some it will bring some form of closure."

Smith said Australia had long been opposed to capital punishment and would soon co-sponsor a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly calling for a moratorium on the practice.

"We urge countries who continue to apply capital punishment not to do so," he said.

The minister also warned of the possibility of further terror attacks in Indonesia as a result of the executions.

"We are worried about the prospect of the supporters of the Bali bombers engaging in either demonstrations or reprisals," Smith said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the executions would have brought back painful memories for more than 200 families from Australia, Indonesia and elsewhere who lost loved ones in the blasts.

"Their lives remain shattered. They've been changed fundamentally by that murder," he told reporters. "So it is their lives that we think about today."

- AFP