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urvivors of the 1965 anti-communist purge have deplored Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto’s statement that the mass killings were justified to save the country from communism.

One of the survivors of the atrocity, Slamet Sudarno, said that the government was insensitive toward the feelings of those who suffered injustice in the tragedy.

“The Dutch government has apologized for killing innocent people in Rawagede. Now, why won’t our own government apologize to its own people?” Slamet said, referring to the Dutch government’s decision to compensate the families of men massacred by Dutch colonial forces on Dec. 9, 1947 in Rawagede village in Bekasi, West Java.

Slamet said that he was not affiliated with the communist party but he was tortured by security officials to extract a confession that he was a communist.

“I was arrested in Pekalongan before being put behind bars for 14 years in Buru Island, Maluku without trial. Police accused me of murdering a general in Jakarta,” Slamet said.

Another survivor, Djayusman, said that in spite of Djoko’s refusal to apologize, he expected that the Attorney General’s Office would soon follow up on the report from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that found a gross violation of human rights did take place in the 1965 purge. “This could all be over if the government had the will to resolve it,” said Djayusman, who now lives in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

Djayusman said he was detained in 1965 for a week and was released after security authorities found no evidence to back up a claim that he was a communist. But in 1969, he was imprisoned because he had befriended a neighbor who was a communist.

On Monday, responding to queries whether the government should deliver an apology to survivors of the mass killings, Djoko said the killings were justified as they were aimed at protecting the country. “This country would not be what it is today if it didn’t happen,” Djoko said.

Djoko added that the government could not set up a truth and reconciliation commission to address the grievances of purge survivors. “We can’t do that because the Constitutional Court repealed the law on truth and reconciliation,” he said.

Contacted separately, chairman of Komnas HAM Ifdhal Kasim said that with Djoko’s statement, the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had appeared to turn the clock back to when the New Order regime of president Soeharto was at the peak of its power.

“The current government is no different from the New Order regime because they want to perpetuate the latter’s version of the 1965 purge,” Ifdhal said.

Ifdhal urged Yudhoyono to follow the global trend of governments apologizing for past misconduct.

In 2008, for instance, the Australian government apologized for past mistreatment of Aboriginal natives.

In 2010, UK Prime Minister David Cameron apologized for the 1972 killings by British troops of 13 unarmed protesters on Northern Ireland’s Bloody Sunday after a long-awaited report vindicated those who were killed. (riz)