Editorial No Closure For Families In Bali Execution

Illawarra Mercury

Monday November 10, 2008

AND so it is done.

Bali bombers Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra met their maker early yesterday morning, paying the price for their role in the terror strike that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, in 2002.

Australians will have mixed feelings about the trio's execution.

There are those, like this newspaper, who believe there can be no justification for taking another human life.

That incarceration, not delivering three new martyrs to the cause of jihad, would have been a better course.

While much has been done to fragment and lessen the impact of terror cells in South-East Asia, it is clear the executions will now give a new focal point to those who would seek to perpetuate the harm against Australians abroad.

To have jailed the three indefinitely, of course, would not have been without its continuing pain for victims' families.

The three had still managed to send out chilling messages of hate during their time behind bars. Let's face it, the Indonesian prison system is a curious one.

Some families will find solace in knowing the terrorists, who never revealed an iota of remorse, cannot kill again, although it remains to be seen what action their radical supporters will now take. Ultimately, execution or no execution, there can be no satisfactory resolution or "closure" for those who lost loved ones. We cannot expunge the carnage of Kuta from history.

However, this ugly episode serves to show us mankind's great power to do good or evil in the world. Some of the world's most recent tragedies have been caused by a handful of extremists.

The right-minded and often silent majority should not underestimate its power as a voice of reason and peace.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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