Posted on 06/12/2003 1:27:33 AM PDT by Eurotwit
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - A key suspect in last year's Bali bombings told an Indonesian court on Thursday he was proud of the attack that killed whites and that it served them right.
Reuters Photo
Amrozi, a 40-year-old mechanic, also said he had been involved in several bombings across Indonesia including a blast outside the home of a Philippine diplomat in 2000 that killed two people.
Amrozi is charged with plotting, organizing and carrying out crimes of terror and causing mass casualties in the October 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
When asked how he felt about the impact of the Bali attack, Amrozi told the court: "There's some pride in my heart. For the white people, it serves them right."
Amrozi, testifying at his own trial for the first time, also said he was "more than remorseful" for the Balinese.
He said he had helped prepare explosives for the blast at the Manila envoy's Jakarta residence, bomb attacks in the eastern city of Ambon between 1999 and 2002 and at various churches on Christmas Eve 2000.
He described how the bomb that exploded in a van outside the packed Sari Club in Bali had been given the code name "dodol," an Indonesian sweet.
"The car was brought here then it was laden with a bomb and it was destroyed," he said. "It was brought here for the purpose of bombing." Wearing a black and white Muslim prayer cap and a white shirt, Amrozi appeared relaxed as he sat in the center of the makeshift courtroom and chuckled as he explained how he and alleged bomb plotter Imam Samudra referred to the bomb by its code name.
"We did not say bomb because we did not want others to know. Nobody should know about it, so how could we say bomb? We usually said we were delivering dodol," he said.
Samudra, a 33-year-old computer expert, told the court on Wednesday that he had come up with the idea of attacking the United States and its allies but Amrozi had chosen Indonesia's famous tourist island as the target.
Amrozi, the first key suspect to go on trial over the October 12 attacks, has been dubbed the laughing bomber by the media because of his behavior during the pre-trial investigation.
The Bali attack was the worst since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Many officials suspect the Southeast Asian militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah was responsible. Indonesian police and some Asian and Western governments believe the Jemaah Islamiah is closely linked to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda.
Police have arrested more than 30 men over the Bali bombings.
Amrozi's trial was adjourned until June 16.
And let's see the Left jump up and insist this man committed a "hate crime" and is a "racist" and a "radical Muslim."
*looking at watch*
*whistling in boredom*
Yup...I figured as much.
-Jay
*sigh*
It's tough being the perceived personification of evil and all things wrong in the world, but I guess someone's got to do it.
Imagine, an entire race of "whipping boys". How convenient for the 3rd world...
Yup...but I've always considered those cretins racist. After all, if I said, "Death to all Arabs," I'd be considered racist...so why should those throwbacks of evolution get a free pass when they cry, "Death to all Americans"?
-Jay
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