Indonesia on edge as bombers face execution

Indonesia stepped up security around foreign embassies amid fears of attacks as it prepared Friday to execute the 3 Islamists convicted over the Bali nightclub bombings which killed 202 people.

Police revealed they had found and defused 2 bombs in a Balinese Hindu migrant area on Sulawesi island on Wednesday and Thursday as tensions mount ahead of the imminent executions.

"I think there is a connection between this and the execution of Amrozi and others," local police chief Suparni Parto told AFP, referring to bombers Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who could be executed as early as Saturday.

National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said extra police had been stationed around embassies in Jakarta, especially the US and Australian missions, as well as sensitive locations across the main island of Java.

"We are increasing security at embassies and public places such as malls," he told reporters, adding that bus terminals, railway stations and houses of worship were also possible targets.

"The exact date (for the execution) is the Attorney General's Office's decision but the police are ready for the execution to be carried out any time."

Officials have said Imam Samudra, 38, Amrozi, 47, and Mukhlas, 48, will be executed by firing squad any time from midnight Friday until mid-November.

They were sentenced six years ago for the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali which killed more than 160 foreigners including 88 Australians.

The attack, launched in retaliation for the US invasion of Afghanistan, remains one of the bloodiest terror bombings carried out in the name of Islam since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The executions have been repeatedly delayed by a series of failed appeals and most recently by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in September.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Jasam Pandjaitan told the Antara state news agency the executions would be carried out "soon."

The Balinese prosecutor in charge of the executions reportedly arrived early Friday at the prison island of Nusakambangan off southern Java where the bombers are being held, along with police responsible for firing squads.

The younger brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas told AFP the family had not been informed of the executions, as they should be 3 days in advance.

Beaming broadly like his older brother Amrozi, who is known as the "smiling assassin," Ali Fauzi said the family had nothing to be ashamed about.

"Do we feel embarrassed or ashamed of what they have done? No, we feel proud because in this world full of lies and accusations there are still people who are ready to fight against that," he said in Tenggulun village, East Java.

Fears of a violent backlash from Islamist radicals in the world's most populous Muslim country have risen amid reports that hundreds of extremists are planning to protest near the prison.

The vast majority of Indonesian Muslims are moderate but a small fanatical fringe have waged jihad, or holy war, for many years in a bid to bring about an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.

The country has been hit by a string of attacks since 2000, including a suicide bombing in Bali which killed 20 people in 2005, a car bombing at the Australian embassy which killed 10 people in 2004 and another car bombing at the American-owned JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people in 2003.

Most of the attacks including the 2002 blasts have been attributed to the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network.

The Bali attacks' chief mastermind, Malaysian former accountant Noordin Mohammad Top, is still at large and believed to be hiding in Indonesia plotting further bombings against Westerners and the Indonesian state.

Source: Agence France-Presse