Villagers in Indonesia oppose burying terror suspects in their hometowns

Indonesians oppose militants’ burial plans

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Plans to give hometown burials to three suspected al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants killed in a police raid last week are being opposed by some residents, who say they don’t want their villages to be known as resting places for terrorists.

Family members on Friday identified the bodies of the three, claiming the remains at a police morgue in the capital, Jakarta.

A fourth man killed in the prolonged gunbattle in Solo, Central Java, was one of Southeast Asia’s most wanted men, regional al-Qaida commander Noordin Top, who authorities say will be buried in Malaysia after his body is picked up by his family next week.

The suspected militants were tracked to their hide-out during investigations into twin suicide bombings at luxury hotels on July 17 that killed seven people and ended a four-year lull in terrorism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Two suspected bomb makers — Bagus Budi Pranoto, alias Urwah, and Ario Sudarso — were fatally shot along with Noordin and another suspected militant, Adit Susilo, who rented the property that was besieged by special forces on Sept. 17.

The bodies of the three Indonesians are to be taken to their villages in Central Java province in the next few days for funeral services that will be led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, said a lawyer for their families, Endro Sudarsono.

But plans to bury them in their hometowns have angered some residents.

Youth organizations in the town of Solo put up scores of protest banners with slogans such as “People of Solo united against terrorists.”

Ahmad Riyadi, a neighborhood chief of Pasuruhan village, Sudarso’s hometown, said local residents oppose laying him to rest there.

“He has damaged the image of Islam, the image of our village,” Riyadi said. “We want to show that we are an anti-terrorism community; he is not Muslim but a terrorist who has murdered innocent people.”

Families of Pranoto and Susilo faced similar sentiments in their home areas.

Amidhan, the chairman of the Indonesian Council of Clerics who like many Indonesians goes by one name, explained the opposition to the burials as a form of social punishment.

“It should be a good lesson for those who want to be terrorists,” he said. “Since residents reject them, local governments should bury them in public cemeteries.”

Community members in good standing are usually buried in village cemeteries, restricted to local Muslim residents, while public cemeteries are usually located outside villages and are open to people of any religion.

However, the National Commission on Human Rights criticized those protesting the burial plans.

“People have the right to be buried in their hometowns,” said Ifdhal Kasim, the chairman of the commission. “People should fight terrorists who are still alive and their ideology, not the bodies of the dead.”

A 2006 poll by the Indonesian Survey Institute found more than 80 percent of those questioned strongly condemned the violent tactics used by al-Qaida and affiliated Indonesian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah to establish a separate Islamic state, and favored peaceful democracy.

However, about 9 percent supported the use of violent attacks, such as the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 civilians, if the attacks are aimed at defending Islam, the poll found.

Also Friday, police declared three other alleged militants detained in the raid as formal suspects, including a pregnant woman whose husband was among those killed. They face charges of violating terrorism laws which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Travel documents meanwhile have been approved for Noordin’s wife, younger brother and brother-in-law to come to Jakarta to identify his body before a funeral in his Malaysian hometown, Badarudin Ismail, a spokesman for Noordin’s family, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Noordin has been blamed for a string of attacks in Indonesia, where al-Qaida-funded suicide bombings have killed more than 250 people, most of them foreign tourists on the popular resort island of Bali, since 2002.