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Indonesia writers' festival forced to cancel events linked to 1965 massacre
The Guardian (Australia) - October 23, 2015
The announcement by organisers on Friday was unprecedented in the 12-year history of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and signalled heightened sensitivities in Indonesia around the 50th anniversary of the mass killings, in which about 500,000 people died.
The festival's founder and director, Janet DeNeefe, said she was "extremely disappointed" to cancel the events, which included three panels, an art exhibit, a book launch, and the screening of an Oscar-nominated documentary on the subject, The Act of Killing.
"1965 is an event that has and continues to influence many Indonesians and as such, we chose to dedicate a proportion of the program to enriching our understanding about this, through themes of reconciliation and remembrance," she said.
"We hoped that these panel sessions would enable conversations to take place that continue Indonesia on its journey of healing, particularly for those whose lives were so severely affected."
Pressure had been applied by government, police and military officials, and local authorities were threatening to revoke the festival's permit, she said.
The documentary has been screened in past festivals, which have also featured discussions of the 1965-6 killings, carried out by paramilitary groups but with military backing in some regions. About a million accused leftists were imprisoned.
Aaron Connelly, an Indonesia specialist at Sydney's Lowy Institute, said the official intervention was surprising. "You would think police would be more sensitive to the fact this would not look good internationally for Indonesia," he said.
Indonesia still had "a very free public square", he said, but the election of president Joko Widodo last year had seen "a trend in anti-foreign sentiment". "The government and the population are struggling with issues of free expression more than in the past," Connelly said.
Widodo said in September the Indonesian government had "no intention to issue an apology" for the murders, which remain little-known among Indonesians or else regarded as "necessary at the time".
This month two British journalists stood trial in the archipelago after being caught allegedly filming a documentary while on tourist visas. In the past such crimes have seen journalists only deported or jailed briefly.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a press freedom advocacy group, nine Indonesians are also facing possible two-year jail terms or a fine for their work on another unauthorised documentary. The country slipped six places in RWB's press freedom rankings this year to 138th in the world.
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