Pancasila Front & 127 anti-communist groups opposes any follow up on 1965 case

Pancasila Front opposes any follow up on 1965 rights commission report

Berita Satu - August 22, 2012

Wasekjen Golkar Minta Rekomendasi Kasus HAM 1965 Ditolak - Beritasatu. Rabu, 22 Agustus 2012

Ezra Sihite/Wisnu Cipto -- Mass organisations (Ormas) that are part of the Pancasila Front are ready to oppose any follow up on the recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on the 1965 killings.

Golkar takes jab at 1965 massacre survivors

Jakarta Globe - August 23, 2012

Ezra Sihite -- One month after Golkar Party deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso stirred controversy by asking the nation to forget the 1965 massacre, senior party official Leo Nababan called upon victims of the violence to stop seeking justice.

In July, after a four-year investigation, the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) labeled as a serious human rights violation and a crime against humanity the orgy of violence that shook the country in 1965 following a failed coup attempt blamed on the communists.

It is thought that up to 500,000 people died in the purge targeting the left, sparked by an attempt to overthrow the country's founding President Sukarno.

The PRD Diaspora, 16 Years On

Merdeka.com – July 24, 2012

Although this article is a little dated, I thought it might still be of interest to readers – JB.

Laurencius Simanjuntak -- The revolutionary ideals of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) founded 16 years ago were thwarted. The New Order regime of former President Suharto in a rage of fury obliterated the party only a few months after it was declared on July 22, 1996. PRD leaders and cadre in the regions were hunted down, abducted, tortured and jailed.

Several among them have never "returned home" to this day. They include Wiji Thukul, Petrus Bima Anugerah, Suyat and Herman Hendrawan, who were among the 13 people that were abducted by the army's elite Special Forces Kopassus in 1997-1998. However not all the stories of former PRD activists are as grim as Wiji Thukul and his comrades.

Government does not need to acknowledge 1965 crimes: NU youth wing

Kompas.com - August 15, 2012

GP Anshor: Pemerintah Tidak Perlu Akui Kejahatan 1965-1966 - Kompas.com. Rabu, 15 Agustus 2012

Aditya Revianur, Jakarta -- The chairperson of the Anshor Youth Movement (the youth wing of the Islamic mass organisation Nahdlatul Ulama), Nusron Wahid, says that the government does not need to acknowledge past gross human rights violations, particularly the humanitarian tragedy in 1965-1966.

NU, retired army officers reject apology to victims of 1965 killings

Kompas.com - August 15, 2012

PBNU Tolak Permintaan Maaf kepada Korban Tragedi 65 - Kompas.com - Rabu, 15 Agustus 2012

Aditya Revianur, Jakarta -- The Nahdlatul Ulama's Central Board (PBNU) with the support of retired army officers and mass organisations is strongly opposed any form of apology by the government or the Indonesian president for the 1965-1966 tragedy.

Indonesian commission urges trials of military rights abusers

Two men await certain death – October 1965

By James Balowski, in Jakarta

After a three-year investigation and testimonies from 349 witnesses, Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has declared that the systematic prosecution of alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) when former president Suharto and the military seized power in 1965 constituted gross human rights violations. It urged that the military officers involved be brought to trial.

Speaking at a press conference on July 23, Nur Kholis, the head of the investigative team into what is officially described as a coup attempt by the PKI, said that state officials under the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib) who served from 1965 to 1967 and between 1977 and 1978 should be tried for crimes including murder, extermination, slavery, eviction or forced eviction, deprivation of freedom, torture and mass rape. Kholis said that his team had handed over the 850-page report to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and “hoped that the AGO would follow up the report”.

19 years after Marsinah's murder, activists demand justice

Challenge 19 years of the dead of Marsinah

Indoleft New Service - May 10, 2012
The following is a compilation of abridged translations from the Indonesian media on commemorations held around the country to mark 19 years since the death of labour activist Marsinah.

Marsinah was a women activist who led a strike at the PT Catur Putra Surya watch factory in Surabaya, East Java. On May 8, 1993, three days after the strike, her body was found in a remote hut. The medical examination found that she had died as a result of injuries inflicted during torture. Although there was considerable circumstantial evidence that she had been kidnapped and killed by the military, in 1994 nine managerial personnel and security guards from the factory were tried and convicted of the murder. All of the defendants claimed that they had been tortured in order to extract confessions. On May 5, 1995, all nine were released.

Evidence of ‘systematic killings’ in 1965

Margareth S. Aritonang, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/09/2012 8:33 AM

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) says it has evidence that government officials were involved in the systematic prosecution of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) following the abortive 1965 coup.

Komnas HAM is expected to announce the formal findings of its investigation on June 3, when it is also expected to propose the establishment a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (KKR).

“Our three-year investigation has confirmed that mass rapes, torture, and killings, in violation of the Law on Human Rights Courts, occurred nationwide between 1965 and 1966 and ended only in the early 1970s,” Nur Kholis, the head of Komnas HAM’s investigative team, said.

PKI victims accuse Komnas HAM of delaying release of 1965 report

Tribune News - January 17, 2012

Nurmulia Rekso Purnomo, Jakarta -- Victims of human rights violations held a protest action on Tuesday January 17 demanding that the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) immediately announce the results of an investigation in to the 1965-66 affair. The action was held at the Komnas HAM offices in the Menteng area of Central Jakarta.

Sumarsih (80), the former chairperson of the Bojonegoro City Gerwani (Indonesian Women's Movement) branch in East Java in 1950 said she was disappointed with Komnas HAM because to this day they have not resolved the slaughter and expropriation of the rights of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and people deemed to be linked to the party.

‘Systemic’ violations found in 1965 purge

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/18/2012 8:19 AM

Life of suffering: Victims of events in 1965 sing a protest song inside the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) office in Jakarta on Tuesday. They and several rights activists asked Komnas HAM to reveal the results of its investigation into the gross human rights violations committed by the state during the 1965/1966 massacre, which the government blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party and its affiliates. Antara/Fanny Octavianus 

Afandi Saleh has been waiting for justice for 33 years after his release from Buru Island in 1979, where he was held for a decade without a trial for a crime he said he did not commit. 


The 73-year-old said he had little direct knowledge of his alleged offense: the murder of five Indonesian Army generals and one lieutenant at Lubang Buaya, East Jakarta, in 1965, perpetrated as part of a coup attempt by the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).


“I happened to be at Lubang Buaya taking part in a military training held by the AURI [Indonesian Air Force]on orders from president Sukarno. I learned that the killings happened near our training facility on the radio soon after I got home,” Afandi said.

Activist urges reopening of probe into 'July 27' attack

Jakarta Globe - July 26, 2011

The statement by former general Slamet Singgih on Tuesday about a secret meeting to plan the infamous July 27, 1996, attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was applauded by local activists.

Mugiyanto Sipin, the head of the Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared, said that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) should follow up on the revelation.

Land conflicts between the TNI and the people rooted in 1965

lKompas - April 25, 2011



Reformasi TNI Belum Tuntas - Kompas. Senin, 25 April 2011


Jakarta -- Conflicts between the Indonesian military (TNI) and the people shows that internal reform within military as an institution is not fully complete. The security approach, like the era of Suharto's New Order regime, is still being used by the TNI, particularly when confronted by problems.


Speaking in Jakarta on Sunday April 24, The Indonesian Institute researcher Hanta Yuda said that the conflicts that have occurred between the TNI and the people are evidence that a number of agenda items still remain in the reform of the TNI. "The indication being that the TNI still uses violent methods to overcome problems, as it did during the previous New Order era", said Yuda.

Decline in workers' purchasing power threatens consumption, national industry

Kompas - February 4, 2011

Inflasi - Daya Beli Buruh Bakal Kian Merosot – Kompas. Jumat, 4 Februari 2011.
<http://cetak.kompas.com/read/2011/02/04/02461433/daya.beli.buruh.bakal.kian.mer
osot>

Jakarta -- The government should be more serious about controlling the rising rate of inflation. If the situation continues, people's purchasing power, especially fixed-income labor groups, will continue to decline and impact on national consumption levels.

The decline in domestic consumption will further weaken the resilience of national manufacturing industries that are already reeling under the impact of imported products. Declining domestic purchasing power will result in the national economy being more vulnerable to crisis.

New book reveals CIA role in consolidation of Suharto's New Order regime

Kompas - January 22, 2011

Jakarta -- The US Central Intelligence Agency very much dominated the initial consolidation of the New Order regime of former President Suharto. US international relations historian from Princeton University, Bradley R Simpson, says that the succession of laws enacted by President Suharto was drafted with strong influence from the US.

"As an example is the case of Law Number 1/1967 on Foreign Capital Investment. A succession of laws and the presence of Freeport in Papua were the initial steps in US government intervention at the time in the Suharto regime", said Simpson, who has recently launched a book published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama titled "Economists with Guns: The United States, the CIA and the Emergence of the Authoritarian New Order Regime".

The White House and the CIA played an extremely important role in efforts to reschedule Indonesia's debt after the Indonesian economy during earlier period of former President Sukarno suffered hyperinflation and problems obtaining foreign exchange.

In the initial period of the Suharto administration US intelligence greatly assisted the military dominated regime. Although there were also concerns a too large military organisation in Indonesia could be counterproductive to US interests. It was because of this that it was only in the 1970s that the US was prepared to provide primary defense equipment weaponry.

Indonesia: Remembering mass-murder

Alex de Jong

The 1960s were worldwide a period of turbulence and change. But whereas in many parts of the world, the decade is often remembered as a time of exuberance and hope, in Indonesia it’s split in half by a wave of intense violence. About 45 years ago, one of the great crimes of the twentieth century took place: from early October 1965 to March 1966, after a coup attempt by pro-Communist Party officers backfired, Indonesia witnessed the bloodiest massacres in its history.

The predominant form of the killings was an anti-Communist pogrom, targeting not only the leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Kommunis Indonesia, PKI) and its allied organizations but also their rank and file. Thousands died in these targeted, systematic killings. The outcome of the killings was the establishment of Suharto’s Orde Baru or New Order dictatorship. “1965” became the founding myth of Suharto’s regime. The memory of it was simultaneously repressed and instrumentalized, formed and denied: “don’t talk about the killings”, “the killings were a period of mass hysteria”, “society ran amok”, “the killings were caused by fighting among the Communists”, “don’t support communism, remember how they killed those people in 1965” – and, in hushed voices; “don’t support communism, remember how we crushed the PKI”.

Indonesia, the angry nation?

Jakarta Globe - October 6, 2010

Tasa Nugraza Barley -- Like any Indonesian, Endah Puspita, 27, was taught 
growing up that she lived in a nation of friendly and polite people.

Recent events, however, have made her question if this reputation still 
held true. "I'm extremely sad to see all these violent conflicts happening 
in this country," said Endah, who works as a project administrator for a 
multinational company in Jakarta.

She is not alone. More and more Indonesians are starting to become 
apprehensive about the prevalence of violent events in the news every day.

Gracia Cassandra, a public relations practitioner in Jakarta, feels the 
situation has gotten much worse. "I'm so angry with the current condition," 
she said, adding that many contentious issues need to be solved.

Thought this might interest you...

Translated by James B

Excerpt: “Circles close to the Palace group Rizal in the same rank as former Indonesian Military Chiefretired Gen. Wiranto who now leads the Hanura Party and Fuad Bawazier, the former Finance Minister who hasalso joined that party. This group has adopted the flag bearing the words the People’s Challenge Front(FRM).”
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Cover Story: On High Alert
Tempo Magazine - May 27-June 2, 2008

The government has raised the price of fuel, triggering protests everywhere. The Palace is worried that martyrs will fall, while the President has cancelled his trip to Italy.

Budi Setyarso – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to have visited Rome next week to attend a World Food Security Ministerial Level Meeting. The meeting, organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization, will, among other topics, discuss the world food crisis. But the domestic crisis may well put an end to the President’s plans.

“The President’s trip to Italy, also to England, has been canceled,” said a Tempo source. Presidential spokesperson Dino Patti Djalal has not disputed the information, although he claims it is not a cancellation, because the planned trip to these countries was not publicized.