Accused Bali bomber singles out US and Australia

DENPASAR - Accused Bali bomber Imam Samudra yesterday declared the United States and its allies, including Australia, "a force of terrorism".

"We are against the United States and its allies to fight against despotism and terrorism," Samudra told the Denpasar District Court as part of his defence against charges of terrorism over last year's October 12 attack.

"The US and its allies are a force of terrorism, they are colonists, they are very arrogant."

Samudra told the court the Indonesian Government had forgotten that Australia and the US had taken East Timor from Indonesia.

Describing US President George W. Bush as a "vampire" and a "despot", he equated the Bali bombing to the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001.

He did not admit to any of the charges, carrying the death penalty, that accuse him of picking Bali as a target and running the operation to bomb the nightclub strip.

But he said the attack was justified.

He accused Indonesian investigators of torturing confessions out of the key Bali bombers, including Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who last week became the first accused to be convicted and sentenced to death.

Samudra also suggested that Amrozi had lied to him about what he did with money he had given the 41-year-old convict who bought the explosives and vehicle for that attack.

Samudra said he was "grateful" for the deaths of Americans and their allies but sorry for the deaths of Indonesians in the Bali attack, which killed 202 people.

He said he did not agree with any terrorist attack in Indonesia which killed Indonesian nationals, referring specifically to the bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta last week which killed 11 people, mostly Indonesians.

He thanked the prosecutors for demanding a death sentence and said execution by firing squad would bring him closer to God.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Bali bomb blast