JAKARTA: A day after the execution of the three Bali bombers, the Indonesian government bore the brunt of criticism for fuelling public sympathy for the men, with militants proclaiming them 'martyrs' and 'holy warriors'.

The media has also been blamed for fanning emotions and sympathy for the condemned men to fever pitch, overshadowing the crimes they had committed in the 2002 bombings, said analysts.

Getting undue sympathy 'There should be soul-searching on the part of various people for indirectly helping to portray the men as martyrs or holy warriors who deserve public sympathy.' Islamic studies scholar Azyumardi Azra of the State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah ... more

'There should be some soul-searching on the part of various people for indirectly helping to portray the men as martyrs or holy warriors who deserve public sympathy,' Islamic studies scholar Azyumardi Azra of the State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah told The Straits Times.

'These men deserved to be executed because of the heinous crimes that they had committed. Certainly they didn't die as martyrs,' he added.

Amrozi, 47, his elder brother Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38, were executed by firing squad early on Sunday for their roles in the bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

TV stations carried live visuals of hundreds of people receiving their bodies with chants of 'Allahu Akbar' or 'God is Great' and banners proclaiming them as syuhada or martyrs.

Their execution was delayed for many months and this gave militants the opportunity to publicly voice sympathy and support for the bombers, said analysts.

Militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir and his followers organised prayer sessions at mosques in Solo, Central Java, and in Jakarta for the men before and after the execution.

Critics blame the increased support for the three terrorists on the government for its indecisiveness about the execution. They also say media coverage was sympathetic towards the bombers.

'It's the government's fault for delaying the execution for months that allowed the media to play up the issue,' said analyst Syafi'i Anwar of the Jakarta-based International Centre for Islam and Pluralism.

But a spokesman for the Attorney-General's Office, Mr Jasman Panjaitan, denied that the government had delayed the execution.

He argued that a small minority would have shown empathy for the men even if they had been executed the day after their death sentences were announced in 2003. Their execution has been delayed repeatedly by a series of failed appeals as well as religious considerations, like the need to avoid the Muslim fasting month.

'The increase in empathy and support for the bombers was not related to the execution process which took a long time to ensure their rights and fair justice,' Mr Jasman told The Straits Times.

TV stations went to town by broadcasting details of the bombers' activities at their prison in Nusakambangan island, off Central Java. Cameras also zoomed in on the wives and children of the men during family visits, which aroused public sympathy.

Footages of interviews with the bombers given during Hari Raya Puasa this year and last year when prison gates were opened to the media, were aired repeatedly over the past four weeks.

In the interviews, the men defended their acts as a fight for the cause of Islam, saying that the bombings were justified. They even urged Muslims to retaliate for their pending deaths.

Republika, a widely-read Muslim newspaper, also carried at least one commentary which said that the execution was cruel and that those who carried out the execution would be punished.

Analysts note that both the media and the government were to blame because the men on death row continued to make news, obviously with the help of the prison authorities.

One of the men even got married while on death row and all of them were constantly in contact with the outside world with easy access to telephones and the Internet - a fact that does not speak well of Indonesia's high security prison system.

In its editorial yesterday, the Jakarta Post said: 'Now that they have been executed, we hope there will be some soul-searching by those who run our prisons about the concept of high security prisons, and by those who run the national media about their complicity, deliberate or not, in this whole fiasco.'

While most of Indonesia's 230 million people are moderate Muslims who have little or no sympathy for the bombers, there is a small but vocal minority of radicals who strongly support them.

salim@sph.com.sg