Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings

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Date
  
24 December 2000

Deaths
  
18

Target
  
Churches

Non-fatal injuries
  
Dozens

Location
  
Medan, Bandung, Batam, Ciamis, Mataram, and Pekanbaru

Perpetrators
  
Al QaedaJemaah Islamiyah

On Christmas Eve, 2000, a series of explosions took place in Indonesia, which were part of a high-scale terrorist attack by Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah. The attack involved a series of coordinated bombings of churches in Jakarta and eight other cities which killed 18 people and injured many others.

Contents

Bombing locations

A breakdown of the bombings is as follows:

  • Jakarta: Five Catholic and Protestant churches, including the Roman Catholic Cathedral, were targeted, killing at least three people.
  • Pekanbaru: Four police officers killed trying to disarm a bomb; a civilian also died
  • Medan: Explosions hit churches
  • Bandung: Explode at production, bomb maker died
  • Batam Island: Three bombs injure 22
  • Mojokerto: Three churches bombed; one dead. One of them is the Eben Haezer church in Jalan Raden Ajeng Kartini. At around 8:30pm on December 24, 2000, while trying to throw the bomb away, a Muslim security volunteer, Riyanto, was killed;
  • Mataram: Three churches bombed
  • Sukabumi: Bombings kill three

    • Arrests

    Two suspects were arrested following the bombings. Indonesian police say they found documents implicating Hambali in the bombings. Abu Bakar Bashir was tried for involvement in the bombings in 2003 but was found not guilty; he was subsequently convicted of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombing.

    The Indonesian progressive metal band Kekal has cited the bombings as an inspiration for its anti-terrorism song "Mean Attraction," which appeared on its third full-length album, The Painful Experience.

    References

    Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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