Bali bomb maker starts new chapter ‘brewing peace' with coffee – but the trauma lingers for his victims
Launching his own coffee business in the Indonesian city of Surabaya on Tuesday evening, the former member of the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, says these days he is more interested in 'brewing peace' than mixing deadly explosives.
'I've changed now,' he told the crowd who had gathered at the Andreasmita cafe for the launch of his coffee brand, Ramu, which features pictures of his bearded face on the packaging.
'I don't want to go back to the past,' he said, 'I'm just looking to the future. I'm not making bombs any more – I'm making coffee.'
Patek was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 for his role in the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and 23 Britons.
In what remains Indonesia's deadliest terror attack, Patek helped mix 50kg of the 1 tonne of explosives used in the bombs, while prosecutors said he helped assemble suicide vests, detonator cords and boosters.
But Patek says those days are long behind him.
Released from jail in late 2022, he has started to rebuild his life by marketing a spiced coffee blend based on his mother's recipe, an initiative he says is part of his mission to help deradicalise terrorists.
'Ramu, if reversed, becomes Umar, my name,' he said, 'Ramu in Indonesian means to mix. Like myself, who is currently mixing coffee.'
After his release Patek said he struggled to reintegrate into society until in 2023 he met David Andreasmita, a dentist and businessman who owns the Hedon Estate cafe in Surabaya, who decided to offer him a second chance.
'Many people thought it was strange that I wanted to work with a former terrorist,' Andreasmita said. 'I have always liked helping people. [But I knew] if I let Umar be, then it would be very possible he would become a terrorist again.'
'I am Christian and he is Muslim, but we can joke together. Umar even considers me his mentor,' he said, 'This coffee business is a form of deradicalisation.'
But for survivors and families of the victims, redemption remains difficult to accept.
At Tuesday's launch, Husnul Khotimah, an Indonesian survivor, confronted Patek about his former life.
'Do you still remember me?' she asked him.
'Look at this,' she continued, gesturing to the scars on her arms and hands – a fraction of the burn scars that still cover 70% of her body.
Patek stood and listened, and appeared moved by Khotimah's words. He said he did remember her, from his sentencing in 2012 at which she had also confronted him, and apologised again.
'I'm sorry that my apology is not comparable to the suffering you feel. If my business is successful, David and I are committed to inviting you and other victims to work with us.'
Khotimah, from nearby Sidoarjo, underwent 37 surgeries in Indonesia and Australia and still has metal fragments lodged in her legs from the attacks.
'It is very difficult for me to forgive Umar and his friends,' she said, 'Especially with my suffering and struggles in the past.'
In 2022, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said he had 'contempt' for Patek's actions and that his early release would renew trauma for victims' families.
Patek said he has apologised many times in the past.
'Today, I apologise again. Let me prove that I have changed,' he said, 'Everyone is watching me now.'
After fleeing Bali before the attacks, Patek spent nine years on the run in Pakistan and the Philippines, where he was affiliated with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He was arrested in 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan – the same town where Osama bin Laden was later killed.
He was also convicted for his involvement in the 2000 Christmas Eve church bombings in Indonesia that killed 18 people.
Tuesday's event drew local and national politicians, and the former head of Indonesia's counter-terrorism agency, Marthinus Hukom, who helped arrest Patek. Some attendees welcomed his efforts to turn his life around.
Security analyst Noor Huda Ismail, founder of The Institute for International Peace Building, said his team had worked with Patek post-release and that his case showed good potential for rehabilitation.
'His willingness to disengage from violent ideology and embrace a peaceful identity has been crucial,' Ismail said. 'Equally critical is the ecosystem of support – people who are willing to look beyond his past and invest in his future.'
Patek had disengaged from radical networks and been supported by family and the Indonesian government's reintegration program, which includes counselling, religious re-education, and economic support, he said.
'Extending a second chance to someone like Umar Patek is not about forgetting the past,' he said, 'It's about reducing the risk of future violence and building a safer society.'
For his part, Patek said he understood that some may never forgive him.
'The public can see and judge for themselves,' he said, 'Starting now.'
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Reuters
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The tiny Pacific nation evading China's grip
Avenida de Hudi-Laran is one of the busiest roads in Dili, the capital of East Timor. On any given day, motorbikes, cramped minibuses and yellow taxis speed past restaurants, spas and furniture supply stores. But instead of the usual Portuguese or Tetum – the country's two official languages – many of the establishments boast Chinese names. The expansion of Chinese-owned businesses has grown to such an extent that most people refer to Hudi-Laran, meaning 'banana complex', as 'China-Laran' now. It's a sign of Beijing's increasing investment in the small country, but its level of influence appears to have its limits. At a time when more and more Asian countries are falling into debilitating debt traps that grant China sweeping leverage, East Timor is resisting – for now. It is one of the world's youngest countries, having gained independence in 2002 after hundreds of years as a Portuguese colony and more than two decades under Indonesian occupation. The nation, located around 430 miles north-west of Australia, makes up the eastern half of the island of Timor, sharing the land with Indonesia. Its strategic position in the contested Indo-Pacific and nearby shipping lanes make the country ripe for Chinese influence. 'We do not view China as a threat, least of all as an enemy,' José Ramos-Horta, East Timor's president, told The Telegraph, insisting his country remains neutral in the battle for control of the Pacific. East Timor sits crucially near the Second Island Chain, a series of islands stretching from Japan through Guam – a US territory with a key military base – to Indonesia's eastern islands. Although further from China than the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan and the Philippines, the second chain is widely viewed as an emerging battleground of influence. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said in April that the US would be boosting investment in the outlying chain of islands. East Timor is also situated near the Ombai-Wetar Strait, a deep-water passage that's critical for movement between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Given its placement, China has attempted to increase its military presence on the island, proposing the construction of a radar facility in 2007, which it claimed would only be used to detect illegal fishing. However, a leaked US diplomatic cable revealed that the site would've allowed China to collect intelligence on American and Taiwanese military activity in the South China Sea, where Beijing has expanded its presence in recent years. The government in Dili rejected the proposal. East Timor relies mostly on security agreements with its neighbours: Australia and Indonesia. While open to participating in joint military drills with China, Mr Ramos-Horta said there was only so much East Timor could offer a country such as China when it comes to defence. 'It's a bit like an elephant inviting a mosquito for joint military exercises. The Chinese will take cruise missiles, we will take slingshots,' he said. The bulk of East Timor's relationship with China is economic, but it has opted for a different route to many other countries. Chinese aid has funded East Timor's presidential palace, foreign ministry and military headquarters, and Chinese state-owned companies built and currently control the national power grid and its major port. The country upgraded its ties with China in 2023 to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which opened the door to 'unlimited' economic cooperation, one expert told The Telegraph. Despite Beijing's economic involvement in such infrastructure projects prompting concern, East Timor has avoided the 'debt trap' that has destabilised so many others. China has a history of lending billions to vulnerable governments that struggle to repay the loans and eventually fall under its thumb. Such has happened in Sri Lanka, which owed China nearly $25 billion (£19.5 billion) before it defaulted and fell into its worst financial crisis in decades. But while Chinese firms have built key infrastructure in East Timor, the projects have been through private tenders. The south-east Asian country has never taken a loan from China, meaning its influence there 'remains limited', according to Loro Horta, East Timor's ambassador to China. In 2012, it came close to accepting a $50 million loan from China to upgrade its drainage system, but Dili rejected the proposal because it gave Beijing disproportionate control over which company would carry out the project. Instead, East Timor took out grants from partners such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, where there are fewer strings attached. The nation also follows a 'friends to all' policy, under which it receives foreign aid and investment from a wide range of partners – including Australia and the US – so it isn't entirely dependent on any one actor. China's grip looms Part of East Timor's ability to resist China's pull stems from its oil and gas revenue, but experts have said this could soon change. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the region by GDP per capita, it earns close to half a billion dollars in petroleum revenue annually, which funds nearly 90 per cent of its state budget. However, its main oil fields are predicted to be fully depleted within the next decade, meaning the country could be left bankrupt, according to Damien Kingsbury, a professor emeritus at Deakin University in Australia. The government is optimistic that more oil will be uncovered before it's too late, but others are worried that the impending economic crisis could push East Timor down the slippery slope towards greater dependency on China. 'Small countries such as East Timor risk having large investors and donors such as China swamp their local economy and thus lose a capacity to make independent economic decisions,' said Prof Kingsbury. 'China could end up having an outsized influence in policy making.' This has happened to countries in the Pacific before. The Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all switched recognition from Taiwan to China in the past decade after developing closer ties with Beijing. The Solomon Islands, historically one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, signed a security agreement with China in 2022, opening the door for Beijing to establish a military base in the region. However, East Timor's 'friends to all' policy could help it to avoid falling into a similar entanglement. 'I have no particular grounds for concern. China has a positive relationship with East Timor – it's significant but not one of the top donors by any means,' said Michael Leach, a professor at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology. 'The Timorese leadership have always been careful to balance their relationships in sensitive ways,' he added. East Timor's bloody past The fact that East Timor has remained relatively unscathed when it comes to China is also a result of its recent bloody history. Indonesian forces occupied the country between 1975 and 1999, and killed around 200,000 people – of a population of only around 600,000. They tortured and slaughtered civilians and resistance forces, in what many scholars have labelled a genocide. 'Indonesia killed a lot of people, a lot of people suffered, and a lot of people sacrificed tremendously in order for it to be a sovereign nation and so they value that sovereignty,' said Charlie Scheiner, a long-time researcher at La'o Hamutuk, one of East Timor's oldest and largest human rights NGOs. No one understands this better than the president and prime minister, who both led the struggle. Mr Leach explained that Xanana Gusmão, the prime minister, spent years fighting and was later imprisoned 'in pursuit of the dream of self-determination and independence', which 'informs a lot of his outlook today on maintaining Timorese independence'. For Mr Ramos-Horta, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, his experience travelling the world and courting diplomatic support made him 'no stranger to the sort of traps that small countries can fall into with foreign policy if they're not careful', according to Mr Leach. Experts agree that East Timor's relationship with China is likely to expand – especially economically – but it will probably not reach a point where there would be a risk to its sovereignty or independence. 'Timor will always be a democracy. We can never be a dictatorship because we are so disorganised and undisciplined – it's impossible to have one country dominate Timor,' insisted Mr Loro. 'Many have tried. They usually fail,' he added jokingly.
