JAKARTA, Oct 24: Indonesia would execute in early November three militants convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, a government official said on Friday.

The men — Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Ghufron — were sentenced to death in 2003 for their roles in the nightclub bombings on the holiday island.

The attacks by the militant group Jamaah Islamiah (JI) were intended to scare away foreigners as part of their drive to make Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, part of a caliphate.

“The Indonesian attorney general office decided that the plan to execute Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron will be conducted in early November 2008,” Jasman Pandjaitan, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, told reporters.

The executions will take place on the island of Nusakambangan, where the three men are being held in a maximum security prison, officials said.

“I don’t know what to say,” Sumarno, a relative of Amrozi and Mukhlas, wrote in a telephone text message to Reuters.

Metro TV station quoted Khozin, who is the brother of Amrozi and Mukhlas, saying that he regretted the decision to hasten the execution process.

Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, who were convicted for playing key roles in the bombings, have refused to seek clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the Supreme Court rejected their final appeals, saying they wanted to die as martyrs.

In an interview with Reuters late last year, the militants said they regretted only that some Muslims were killed in the blasts.

The two blasts on Bali’s Kuta strip on Oct 12, 2002 --- one at Paddy’s Bar and the other at the Sari Club --- killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesian citizens, and dealt a severe blow to the island’s tourist industry.

Meanwhile, the Australian government on Friday advised its citizens to reconsider the need to travel to Indonesia, including the popular resort island, citing the “very high” threat of attacks.

“There have been recent arrests of high level terrorist operatives in Indonesia, but we assess terrorists are continuing to plan attacks,” the government said in a warning on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.---Reuters