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HRW calls on US government to reveal truth about 1965 massacre
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Some students visit the mass grave of former the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members in the village of Plumbon, Ngalian, Semarang, on June 6, 2015. Twenty-four members of the PKI were buring in the cemetary in two large holes. (TEMPO /Budi Purwanto)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said an apology over the atrocities of 1965 would be futile unless the whole truth was revealed.
The International NGO said the government should be held accountable for its actions related to the killings of people who were considered associated with communism, including for what is hidden in secret files held by the US government.
The organization is pushing the President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo administration to ask the US government to release the documents related to the anti-communist purge to comply with a request made by Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in March.
HRW executive director Kenneth Roth, who is currently in Indonesia, is to speak with government officials, human rights organizations and other relevant stakeholders about the mass killings.
Researchers have estimated about half a million people suspected of being affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were wiped out in 1965 and 1966.
"You can't apologize over a blank slate," Roth said during a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The American human rights advocacy group, together with a local group called the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), are urging the government to conduct an effective accountability process.
The call came as one step to build momentum for the lead-up to a symposium about the 1965 massacre to be held on Apr. 18 and 19.
The symposium, spearheaded by Komnas HAM and the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), will discuss rehabilitation and compensation for the victims of the tragedy, which took place more than 50 years ago and remains a deeply sensitive topic in Indonesia.
The event will occur ahead of a May 2 deadline for settling serious past human rights violations, as declared by Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan last month.
Roth stressed the importance of beginning the process of reconciliation with a public hearing so as to reveal the extent of the impacts of the massacre, thereby providing the basis of a factual record that the government can then officially acknowledge.
The US advocate said he recently met with Wantimpres member Sidarto Danusubroto and presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki to discuss options for addressing the actions of the troops led by Soeharto, then an unknown major general who filled the power vacuum left by the first president Sukarno, to counter an alleged attempted coup on Sept. 30, 1965.
"There is recognition on the one hand that truth is an essential prerequisite for any meaningful reconciliation process. At the same time, there's recognition that there is serious resistance within certain elements of both the government and society," Roth said of the meeting.
Furthermore, he also urged the incumbent government to take a clear stance in its efforts to resolve the human rights violations, especially in regards to the impacts still felt by the victims and relatives of victims of the tragedy relating to the stigma and persecution for being affiliated, or being accused of being affiliated, with the now defunct PKI.
Roth commended the request made by Komnas HAM, which met with US State Department officials to formally ask for the release of files from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other agencies.
The US would have such records, Roth continued, and should Jokowi put his weight behind the request, US President Barack Obama would likely be willing to open up its archives, he added.
"We want to know the working level involvement between the US government and the killers in 1965," he said.
Operational detail including cables, diplomatic messages and CIA messages would be useful as part of the effort to tell the history of the violation, Roth further said.
When possible, he added, it was also important for the architects of the crimes, the directors and the people who oversaw the killings in the anti-communist purge, to be brought to justice.
The genocide occurred during the time when the Vietnam War was intensifying and fears were rising in Washington about other communist takeovers throughout Southeast Asia.
Roth said previously declassified State Department documents indicated the US Embassy in Jakarta in conveyed the names of Communist Party leaders to the Indonesian Army.
US filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, who made two critically acclaimed documentaries on the 1965 genocide, The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing, also recently urged the US Senate to make available all documents relating to the US' role in the national tragedy.
KontraS coordinator Haris Azhar said the events of 1965 were "the mother of all violence in Indonesia" that caused a spiral of other serious human rights abuses, including the 1989 Talangsari incident in Central Lampung, the 2001 and 2003 Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua and various kidnappings and unresolved shootings under the dictatorship of Suharto, who came into power in 1966 and led the New Order era under a military-dominated government until his forced resignation in 1998.
Haris asserted that the best way to move forward and avoid any repeat of crimes of a similar nature would be to tell the whole truth to the public and then follow that up with an acknowledgement from the government. (dan)
