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Government encouraged to reveal docs on 1965 mass killings
Jakarta Post - December 15, 2014
The revelation of the secret state documents, according to historian JJ Rizal, would help the public build interpretations of the incidents as alternatives to the one-sided one endorsed by the government over the past four decades.
"Most information regarding the 1965/1966 mass killings came from the Indonesian Military [TNI]. It was full of propaganda and could be misleading," Rizal told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
"By letting the public know what really happened during the period, the government will not only help the public learn about the nation's past mistakes, but also encourage those involved in the incidents, including victims, perpetrators and their family members, to discuss reconciliation."
Raja Juli Antoni, the executive director of the public policy think tank, The Indonesian Institute, said that although the authenticity of the information could be subject to another debate, the details kept in the government's secret documentation must be publicly revealed to serve as comparative data to help clear "one of the dark moments in the Indonesian history".
"The public, especially the young generation, have a right to know what caused the mass killings," he said. "Without knowing how it happened, a similar incident could happen in the future without anyone seeing it coming."
In the months after the killings of some Army officers in a coup attempt on the eve of Sept. 30, 1965, security forces and militias hunted down and killed thousands of people suspected of being communists. An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people became the victims of extra-judicial killings, with thousands more being imprisoned, or forced into exile.
In 2012, after more than three years of investigation, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) completed a 850-page report detailing the types of criminal acts, including murder, annihilation, slavery, forced disappearances, the restriction of physical freedom, torture and rape, that were committed by officials from the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib), then the country's highest security authority, after the failed coup d'etat.
Learning from its investigation, which involved more than 300 witnesses, Komnas HAM declared the purge a gross violation of human rights, blaming former president Soeharto and other Kopkamtib officials as the most responsible parties for systematically organizing the anti-communist purge. Komnas HAM also recommended the establishment of a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (KKR).
A former Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman, Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, when serving as the fourth president, had apologized for the involvement of NU members in the mass killings.
The legal settlement for the case, however, has remained in the dark as the government has been reluctant to take progressive initiatives, like following up the Komnas HAM report, which had been handed over to the Attorney General's Office (AGO). A senior government official even said that the purge was justified as it was aimed at saving the country.
On Wednesday, US Senator Tom Udall introduced a "Sense of the Senate Resolution" condemning the 1965/1966 mass killings in Indonesia and calling on US authorities to declassify related documents held in US files.
"The US government can play a key role in helping the Indonesian government shine a light on the atrocities of 1965/1966," Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phelim Kine recently said, applauding the US Senate resolution.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Henry Yosodiningrat said that the government had paved a way to address the 1965 tragedy, citing the release of political prisoners during Gus Dur's leadership as an example. He added that the government would also need lawmakers' support to settle past human rights abuses.
"If the government and the House of Representatives later reach an agreement to establish an ad hoc human rights court, that would be fine. But, as of now, it is better for the government to deal with other important problems, like poverty and poor health facilities," he said.
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