[News] New Documents Reveal US Complacence in Indonesian Massacres

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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<https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/New-Documents-Reveal-US-Complacence-in-Indonesian-Massacres-20171018-0005.html> 



  New Documents Reveal US Complacence in Indonesian Massacres

October 18, 2017
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Human rights organizations are calling on the United States and 
Indonesia to declassify more documents regarding the 1965-66 
anti-communist purges that took place under the leadership of Suharto, 
formerly an important ally of the U.S. government before his departure 
in 1998.

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39 previously classified U.S. Embassy in Jakarta documents have been 
uncovered that show U.S. government knowledge of mass killings of 
civilians in Indonesia during the anti-communist purges.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) classified the killings as 
"one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century," and "resulted in an 
estimated 100,000 deaths" within the first two months according to a 
diplomatic cable from the Political Affairs Counselor at the US Embassy 
in Jakarta to Washington D.C., December 21, 1965.

By 1966, the killings committed by soldiers and local militias, who were 
given the order to murder any suspected communists by General Suharto, 
killed at least 500,000 people ( figures suggest the number may be in 
the millions), many of whom were not affiliated with the Communist Party 
of Indonesia (PKI).

In addition to extrajudicial execution, victims of the anti-communist 
purges were subjected to torture, rape, forced disappearance, forced 
labor, forced eviction, and arbitrary detention.

The massacres, which cables now confirm were known by U.S. diplomats and 
their State Department colleagues in Washington, targeted members of the 
communist party, student activists, intellectuals, trade unionists, 
progressives, artists, community leaders, women’s rights activists, and 
ethnic Chinese.

“We continue to receive reports [of] PKI being slaughtered by Ansor [a 
Muslim militia] many areas East Java. Killing of PKI continues in 
villages bordering Surabaya and wounded released from Surabaya refuse to 
return to their homes. According head East Java Railways, 5 stations 
closed because workers afraid to come to work since some of them have 
been murdered,” stated one cable from the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya to 
the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, November 26, 1965.

“Meanwhile, both in the provinces and Djakarta, repression of the PKI 
continued, with the main problem that of what to feed and where to house 
the prisoners. Many provinces appear to be successfully meeting this 
problem by executing their PKI prisoners, or by killing them before they 
are captured.”

The killings remain a controversial topic in Indonesia, as the 
prevailing interpretation claims that the attacks were necessary to 
prevent from a communist takeover in an alleged coup attempt on Sep. 30, 
1965 in which six army generals were killed. This event was used by 
Suharto to justify the anti-communist massacres.

In Dec. 2014, U.S. Senator Tom Udall from New Mexico introduced a 
resolution on the floor of the United States Senate to condemn the 
1965-66 massacres and demand the immediate declassification of relevant 
information.

The resolution notes that “six Indonesian Army generals were killed by 
military personnel, including members of Indonesia's Presidential Guard, 
and these killings were blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party and 
labeled an ‘attempted Communist coup d’e´tat,’”and that “this alleged 
coup was used to justify the mass killings of alleged supporters of the 
Indonesian Communist Party, with estimates of the number of dead ranging 
from 500,000 to 1,000,000 killed.”

Udall’s resolution notes that most of the victims of Suharto’s massacres 
were unarmed civilians and that the U.S. knowingly provided military, 
financial, and logistical support during this period.

The 39 U.S. Embassy in Jakarta documents that were released by the U.S. 
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are part of 30,000 
pages of declassified embassy paperwork spanning from 1965 to 1968. 
These documents do not include CIA documents, which are still classified 
and are widely believed to include more evidence of U.S. complacence to 
the massacres.

The Indonesian military has responded to calls by activists for 
increased transparency surrounding the killings have been met with 
propaganda, according to human rights organizations.

The U.S. and Indonesian governments have not indicated that they will 
declassify further information.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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