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Indonesia urged to stop silencing discussion on '1965'

Jakarta Globe - October 31, 2015

Ubud festival cancels session on reclamation – Jakarta Post. October 30, 2015
Censorship at Ubud writers' festival proves a creeping menace – Sydney Morning Herald. October 29, 2015
Censorship and the forbidden past – New Mandala. October 27, 2015
Komnas HAM investigates ban on student magazine – Jakarta Post. October 26, 2015
Government must provide security for 1965 public discussions: NGOs – Jakarta Post. October 26, 2015

Jakarta – Amnesty International is calling on the Indonesian government to stop restricting the rights to freedom of expression and assembly with its attempts to silence public discussion about the bloody anti-communist purges of the mid-1960s.

In a press statement, Amnesty expressed its concern about "continued attempts by the Indonesian authorities to silence public discussions, and disband events, related to serious human rights violations that occurred 50 years ago, the most recent at a writers festival in Bali."

"These actions are a clear restriction of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly and must end immediately," the organization said.

The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, which runs until tomorrow, was forced to cancel a number of planned events after "scrutiny" from authorities.

"Three panel sessions dedicated to discussing the 1965 Communist repression and an art exhibition and book launch The Act of Living will no longer be taking place across the Festival period. In addition the film screening of Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence has also been cancelled," organizers said in a statement.

"The Festival has been involved in extensive negotiations with local authorities, but ultimately was advised that should certain sessions proceed, it would run the risk of the entire Festival being cancelled."

Amnesty noted in its statement: "Although Indonesia has seen a marked increase in the space for freedom of speech and expression following the fall of Suharto in 1998, a culture of silence has prevailed in discussing the 1965 mass human rights violations."

It explained: "Victims and survivors of serious human rights abuses have a right to exercise their freedom of expression and discuss the past. In the absence of genuine measures by the government to date to establish the truth, Amnesty International believes that public events and discussions on the 1965 violations such the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Indonesia play an important role in providing such spaces. These events can help victims and their families understand what happened to them, counter misinformation and highlight factors – such as discrimination – that led to the abuses. Such spaces, allow societies to understand why abuses were committed so that they are not repeated."

The human rights organization also called on President Joko Widodo's administration to "face the past and take long overdue measures required to provide the 1965 victims with truth, justice and full reparation," and urged Joko to "make a public call to end to all forms of restrictions against public discussions on 1965 and ensure that the government starts listening to victims and others, instead of suppressing their voices."

Earlier this month, a campus magazine writing about the 1965 massacres had to destroy all printed copies, while authorities in West Sumatra deported a survivor of the 1965 anti-communist purge after he tried to locate his father's mass grave.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/human-rights-news/indonesia-urged-stop-silencing-discussion-1965/.