The Jakarta Post
Reconciliation: Sinta Nuriyah Wahid (right), the wife of late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, greets 1965 Tragedy Victims Research Foundation West Sumatra branch chair Nadiani during a national symposium on the events of 1965 in Jakarta on Monday.(JP/Don)The first ever national conference to review one of the darkest periods in the country’s history came up against a brick wall on Monday with the government refusing to recognize the estimated number of people killed in anticommunist violence in 1955-1966.
In an apparent move to understate the scale of the atrocities, which saw the Indonesian communist movement functionally wiped out, the government challenged claims that hundreds of thousands of people were killed during the events, which also saw the rise of Soeharto, the longest-serving ruler in the nation’s history.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Secur...