Forgotten Massacre of Indonesian Communists

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2118

In Djakarta in late July, a national human rights commission presented a report describing the bloody anti-communist repression of 1965 as “crimes against humanity.”

For the first time in Indonesia, a step has been taken toward official recognition of the anti-communist massacres of 1965-1966, which cost the lives of a million men and women – and probably even more – who were members of, or real or supposed sympathizers with, the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). In late July a national human rights commission presented a report mentioning, with regard to this somber sequence of historical events, “flagrant violations of human rights” and “crimes against humanity.” The document goes back in detail over these mass crimes, which were supervised by General Suharto’s “command for the restoration of security and order,” before exhuming other aspects of the repression: enslavement, forced disappearances, deportations to concentration camps, torture, rape, and forced prostitution.

The PKI, which before its execution was a leading political force on the Indonesian archipelago, had 3.5 million members and 15 million sympathizers. Allied with the nationalist Sukarno, the communists became the target of unheard-of violence when in September 1965 generals said to be close to the PKI were accused of having fomented an attempted putsch. Suharto, backed by the United States, then led the bloody repression, mobilizing the religious right and reactionary forces. In 1966, Suharto deposed Sukarno, putting a permanent end to the original political experience initiated by that figure of the non-aligned movement and Third World-ism. The country then plunged into a long night until the dictator’s fall, when the people chased him from power in 1998. He then lived undisturbed until 2008 without having answered for his crimes.

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[Swamp Lover]

1. The backdrop for a young Mel Gibson's finest film...

...."The Year of Living Dangerously".

[limpyhobbler]

2. Wow I never heard about that before.

Also looked at the wikipedia entry for another perspective.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_killings_of_1965%E2%80%931966

Pretty gruesome stuff.

[David__77]

3. The Western media (USA in particular) cheered these mass killings.

Unfortunately, progressive politics have not recovered since the eradication of the PKI, which was actually spearheaded by Islamist gangs. And to this day, the US is supporting anti-leftist Islamists, today most notably in Syria.

[HiPointDem]

4. obama's stepdad returned to indonesia circa `65-66 too.

[covenant]

7. revolutionary situation

Last edited Mon Sep 17, 2012, 05:46 AM - Edit history (1)

The Indonesian massacre is one of the reasons why the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army cannot declare it a revolutionary situation. Millions would be uprooted from their homes, tortured and shot just like what Pinochet and Suharto did. Terrible modern-day fascists.

[Odin2005]

5. Atrocities are OK when Capitalists do it.

Whenever some RW idiot brings up the atrocities of Stalin and Mao I respond with all the atrocities done in the name of Capitalist Liberal Democracy, and all of a sudden they are denying they were atrocities.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Black and Native slavery, smallpox to New World natives

Wars of Conquest in the Americas, the forcible opening of China, King Leopold's slaughter in the Congo, United Fruit/CIA pogroms in South America. Vietnam. All of World War One in imperialist expansion. ...those are just off the top of my head.