bourbiza mohamed
East Java, Indonesia – Umar Patek was launched from jail final December after serving simply over half of a 20-year jail sentence for the Bali vacation island bombings in 2002, which killed 202 folks. He was additionally convicted for a collection of bomb assaults on Christian church buildings on Christmas Eve, 2000, that left 18 useless.
On the run for nearly a decade, 57-year-old Patek from Central Java was arrested in 2011 in Abbottabad in Pakistan and extradited to Indonesia the place he was discovered responsible of bomb making and homicide the next yr. The US State Division had provided a reward of $1m for any data resulting in his seize.
Patek’s early jail launch for good behaviour in 2022 was sharply criticised by Australian officers and the relations of the a whole lot of victims of the Bali bombing.
Al Jazeera lately interviewed Patek at his dwelling in East Java the place he spoke about his function in Bali and revealed that the horrific bomb assault 20 years in the past was an act of revenge for the violence inflicted on Palestinian folks by Israeli forces.
He additionally talked about repentance and of being not sure whether or not God would forgive him for killing so many civilians.
Al Jazeera: How did you grow to be concerned with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the armed group behind the Bali Bombings?
Umar Patek: In 1991, I used to be working in Malaysia and met Mukhlas [a senior JI figure who was sentenced to death and executed in 2008 for masterminding the Bali bombings] in Johor Bahru on the Lukman Hakim Islamic Boarding College.
I labored on a plantation in Malaysia, and would go to non secular lessons within the night on the faculty. Then Mukhlas requested me to work on the faculty, so I moved in. After three months on the faculty, he provided me the prospect to go to Pakistan. I wished to check and he mentioned I might examine faith there.
I first went to Peshawar after which to Sadda, a tribal space in Pakistan which is near the border with Afghanistan, the place there was a army academy that educated folks to be mujahideen [Islamic fighters]. From there I moved to a army academy in Torkham in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I used to be in the identical class as [Bali bomber] Ali Imron. In whole, I used to be away for 5 years from 1991 to 1995.
We discovered the whole lot on the army academy to coach us to be mujahideen, equivalent to methods to use weapons, map studying and bomb making. We practised blowing up bombs in areas the place there have been no folks, like in caves or on hillsides, in order that there wouldn’t be any fatalities.
We additionally wished to ensure that no goats have been by chance killed as a result of numerous folks have a tendency goats in Afghanistan.
After I completed my army coaching in 1995, I went to the Philippines to hitch the Moro Islamic Liberation Entrance as a result of I supported their trigger as a Muslim.
From 1995 to 2000, I lived at Camp Abubakar within the Bangsamoro area within the Philippines, however the camp was captured by the Philippine Military in July 2000 and I used to be advised to depart as a result of I seemed like I got here from the Center East.
My household is initially from Yemen, though I’m the fourth technology of my household to be born in Indonesia. My face didn’t appear like the folks in Moro.
In December 2000, I went again to Indonesia and stayed with Dulmatin [a JI member and one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia who was nicknamed “the Genius” because of his expertise in electronics for bombs]. Dulmatin requested me to go to Jakarta for work. He had a job promoting automobiles and he mentioned I might additionally search for work there, which is how I turned concerned within the Christmas Eve church bombings.
AJ: You admitted to mixing the chemical compounds for the bombs used within the Bali bombing in 2002 and the Christmas Eve church bombings in 2000. However you additionally mentioned you didn’t know what the bombs can be used for. The place did you assume the bombs can be planted?
Patek: I didn’t combine the bombs for the church bombings, I solely knew concerning the bombs on the time of supply. It was Eid al-Fitr [the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan] and Dulmatin mentioned, “Let’s go dwelling to Pemalang for the vacation and drop off some issues alongside the way in which.”
We saved stopping at church buildings, though I didn’t get out of the automobile. Each time we stopped at a church, I grew extra suspicious that we have been dropping off bombs as a result of the packages have been packed in laptop computer baggage.
I used to be sentenced for the bombings though I didn’t make the bombs or get out of the automobile as a result of I used to be there and I didn’t do something to cease it. Dulmatin then requested me to go on a visit to Bali in October 2002. We went right into a home which was already filled with bomb making gear.
I met with [JI members] Imam Samudra, Mukhlas, Idris and Dr Azahari. Imam Samudra mentioned that they wished revenge for the occupation of palestine and the assault on Jenin [by Israeli forces in 2002 which killed more than 50 Palestinians as well as 23 Israeli soldiers], in order that they wished to bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali. He ushered me into one of many rooms in the home the place all of the elements to make the bombs had been ready.
I advised them, if we wished to get revenge for the atrocities dedicated towards Muslims in palestine, we should always go to palestine and never kill Westerners in Indonesia. I requested them, “What’s the relationship between these individuals who can be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in palestine?”
I advised them that in the event that they wished to kill Westerners in giant numbers utilizing a one-tonne bomb, it will not simply kill the folks in entrance of it. It could explode in all places. I advised them that it will kill numerous different individuals who weren’t their goal.
I mentioned {that a} bomb would additionally probably trigger Muslim casualties. I requested them, “Who will take accountability within the subsequent world [paradise] if there are Muslim victims due to this bomb?”
Imam Samudra mentioned that, on the day of judgement, everybody can be judged individually for his or her actions primarily based on their intentions.
I felt that there was no means I might refuse. Imam Samudra had locked the entrance door of the home in order that nobody might depart.
So I did it, and made the final 50kg [110lbs] of the bomb.
AJ: Greater than 200 folks died in Bali on account of the bomb you helped to make. How do you are feeling about killing so many individuals?
Patek: I felt responsible once I combined the supplies for the bomb and I felt I used to be sinning. I felt I used to be breaking Indonesian regulation however, greater than that, I felt it was a sin towards God.
AJ: Do you take into account your self to be a mass assassin?
Patek: Sure. I really feel that I’m a assassin and a sinner.
I’ve apologised to the victims of the Bali bombing a number of occasions and met with the households of the victims of the bombing, too. I advised them I used to be sorry. Everybody who has met with me in individual has forgiven me. After I meet victims, I say, “I’m Umar Patek and I used to be concerned within the Bali bombing,” then I clarify why I used to be there, and apologise.
Some folks don’t wish to meet me and don’t wish to forgive me, like folks from Australia. That’s their proper, however my accountability as a Muslim, and somebody who has finished mistaken, is to apologise. I don’t know if I can be forgiven, solely God is aware of that.
I didn’t express regret to get out of jail early, however the whole lot is all the time mistaken in different folks’s eyes. If I express regret, folks say I’m pretending and it’s a strategic alternative. If I didn’t apologise, folks would say I used to be conceited.
AJ: Did you agree with the 20-year jail sentence that you got?
Patek: I accepted it on the time. There’s nothing truthful on this life on Earth, justice will solely come within the hereafter.
AJ: Your launch from jail was extremely controversial, notably in Australia, as you solely served 11 years of your 20-year sentence. Ought to you’ve got been freed?
Patek: I fulfilled all the factors in keeping with Indonesian regulation to qualify for launch in 2022. I had additionally been very against the thought of the Bali bombing from the start. The witnesses at my trial all mentioned the identical, which is why I used to be sentenced to twenty years in jail [only]. The central folks within the Bali bombing have been sentenced to dying or died in different methods like Dulmatin, who was shot by the police.
I final noticed him in June 2009, once I got here dwelling from the Philippines to Jakarta. He requested me to go to a JI army academy in Aceh, however I mentioned I didn’t wish to. I had had sufficient. I advised him I used to be simply transiting in Indonesia to get my passport and visa to go to Afghanistan. I wished to reside there for the remainder of my life and I requested him to come back with me, however he refused.
He [Dulmatin] was shot in Pemulang in Tangerang [a city on the outskirts of Jakarta]. I puzzled if he had repented for his sins earlier than he died. I by no means heard him say he felt regret or unhappiness concerning the victims of the Bali bombing and about individuals who weren’t the goal of the bombing. He by no means mentioned something about that and by no means requested for forgiveness.
So I used to be unhappy for him.
AJ: Is the killing of civilians ever justified?
Patek: After I was within the Philippines with the [Moro front], I lived with [the chairman] Salamat Hashim and he would typically preach to us. He strongly forbade mujahideen from attacking civilians, not simply Muslims but additionally Christians. He mentioned that that was not allowed, and that solely members of the military, or civilians who have been preventing with the military, and who have been additionally carrying weapons, have been allowed to be attacked.
He as soon as mentioned to me, “Why do you wish to wage jihad in Indonesia, who do you wish to battle there? The president is Muslim, the federal government is Muslim, the Individuals’s Consultant Council is principally Muslim, numerous police are Muslim, the military is stuffed with Muslims. It’s haram [forbidden] to assault them as a result of attacking Muslims just isn’t allowed.”
He felt that it was not proper to assault folks in Indonesia, and I mentioned that on the time of the Bali bombing, however nobody wished to hearken to me.
AJ: What are your ideas on the Israel-Gaza conflict?
Patek: Within the opening part of the 1945 Indonesian Structure, it says that “all colonialism should be abolished on this world”.
Occupation wherever, not simply in palestine, just isn’t allowed.
It’s Hamas’s proper to take again their land. The information that they’re killing infants and kids is a hoax perpetrated by the Western media. Indonesia was occupied by the Dutch colonialists. Would you name Indonesian heroes, who fought for his or her independence, terrorists? The Dutch would name them terrorists, however they have been simply taking again their land.
AJ: Are you deradicalised now?
Patek: What’s radicalised? If a Christian desires to observe their faith in keeping with the teachings of the Bible, would we name them radicalised?
I really feel that the media has a false picture of me as somebody who’s scary and merciless. They all the time paint me as somebody who’s harmful.
Individuals typically ask me why I don’t wish to be a terrorist any extra and why I’m so cooperative. I additionally say that it’s from my household. They’re those who melted my coronary heart and set me again to the proper path.
I’m the oldest of three brothers. All my relations are average Muslims, none of them have ever adopted the identical ideology I used to observe, and so they have typically confronted me about it through the years.
If my household had mentioned they didn’t wish to have something extra to do with me due to my outdated ideology, maybe I might nonetheless be radical in my pondering, however fortuitously they embraced me and that allowed me to alter.
AJ: How do you are feeling about non-Muslims?
Patek: After I was a toddler rising up, all my neighbours have been Chinese language Christians. I all the time used to play with them. Since I used to be younger, I’ve all the time been round non-Muslims.
I don’t hate Christians. My spouse’s prolonged household are Christians and, once we acquired married, we had no issues and took pictures collectively on our marriage ceremony day.
After I married my spouse, I invited all of her household to the marriage at Camp Abubakar. To start with, they didn’t wish to come as a result of they have been frightened we might lower their heads off. I advised them that the mujahideen didn’t hurt civilians, and that we solely attacked the police and the military. I mentioned that I assured their security.
Within the Moro custom, when somebody acquired married, mujahideen would shoot their weapons within the air to have a good time. However as a result of my spouse’s Christian household was there, I advised my fellow mujahideen, “Don’t do the standard celebration as a result of now we have Christians coming and it’ll scare them.
“They’ll assume we try to kill them.”
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