The panel of judges at the International People'€™s Tribunal (IPT) at The Hague has concluded that the Indonesian government was responsible for the massacres and oppression that followed the events of Sept. 30, 1965.

Tempo.co reported that the judges recorded that a number of generals were killed during the initial incident, which was followed by the killing of tens of thousands of Indonesian people.

"There is an organized command line from the top to the bottom from an unconstitutional institution," said Presiding Judge Zak Yacoob, when reading the conclusion of the tribunal on Friday.

He said that from all testimonies from the witnesses starting from the first day's hearing on Tuesday to the last day on Friday, it could be undoubtedly concluded "that the serious human rights abuses that they [witnesses] told the judges really happened."

According to the judges, the human rights abuses included the killing of tens of thousands of people, illegal imprisonment without trial for very long periods, inhuman treatment of prisoners, torture, slavery and sexual abuse of women.

They said that all the incidents had the political objective of removing the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and its sympathizers from the Indonesian political scene.

Yacoob noted that all evidence that had been conveyed to the judges had proved the existence of extraordinary crimes against humanity.

The tribunal was a civil initiative managed by human rights activists and aimed to bring justice and closure for people whose lives were affected by the 1965 to 1966 mass killings. The tribunal is not legally binding but is an attempt to give recommendations for the government to acknowledge the past crimes against humanity as well as to formulate solutions for the victims and their families. (bbn)

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