How Britain and U.S. covered up RI massacre<\/p>\n
By Isabel Hilton<\/p>\n
LONDON: As Megawati Soekarnoputri struggles to hang on to
\ncontrol of Indonesia in the latest round of political upheaval,
\nnews has been published of how the British government covered up
\none of the worst massacres of the 20th century. The slaughter in
\n1965 -- of up to a million alleged communist sympathizers -- was
\ncarried out by Gen. Soeharto, who ousted Megawati's father,
\nPresident Sukarno, to become Indonesia's military dictator. What
\nis still less well known is that the British and American
\ngovernments did not just cover up the massacre: they had a direct
\nhand in bringing it about.<\/p>\n
In the era of decolonization and the cold war, ex-colonial
\npowers were intent on preserving their economic interests in
\nformer colonies while setting up nominally independent
\ngovernments. But the natives, inconveniently, did not always see
\ntheir interests as consonant with those of their former colonial
\nmasters. Patrice Lumumba in the former Belgian Congo, Sukarno in
\nIndonesia -- both argued for economic as well as political self-
\ndetermination.<\/p>\n
Lumumba was assassinated with the connivance of Belgium, the
\nUnited States and the United Nations. In Indonesia, the British
\nand American governments succeeded not only in engineering the
\nresult they wanted (the replacement of Sukarno with Gen.
\nSoeharto), but in selling a false version of events that persists
\nto this day.<\/p>\n
Roland Challis, a former BBC south Asia correspondent, has
\ndescribed how British diplomats planted misleading stories in
\nBritish newspapers at the time. But there is also evidence that
\nthe British and U.S. responsibility for the fall of Sukarno goes
\nback to the event that triggered it -- an alleged left-wing coup
\nattempt in 1965. The British were keen to get rid of Sukarno
\nbecause he was pursuing a policy of confrontation with Malaysia.
\nThe U.S. was convinced that Sukarno would drift towards communism
\n-- a far bigger potential headache for U.S. interests than
\nVietnam.<\/p>\n
Sukarno was hugely popular and an assassination would have
\nunpredictable consequences: at worst, it might benefit the
\nIndonesian Communist party, the PKI. The army was divided on the
\nmerits of a move against him. There was one man, though, who was
\nwilling to help -- the commander of the strategic reserve,
\nGen. Soeharto. The challenge was to engineer Sukarno's downfall
\nand, simultaneously, the elimination of the PKI.<\/p>\n
In October 1965, a group of what are still described as
\n\"progressive army officers\" kidnapped and brutally murdered six
\narmy generals, apparently in preparation for a coup. The motives
\nof the group remain a matter of dispute. At the time, they were
\nalleged to be in sympathy with the PKI. They have subsequently
\nbeen described as pro-Sukarno nationalists in revolt against
\ntheir rightwing superiors. But a study carried out at Cornell
\nUniversity in 1966 discovered that what most of the officers had
\nin common was not any association with the PKI, but a connection
\nwith Gen. Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Lt. Col. Untung, the alleged leader, was a successful military
\nofficer who was a known anti-communist. Some of his colleagues
\nhad been trained in the United States where it is unlikely that
\nany communist sympathies would have escaped notice. Soeharto
\nsubsequently dismantled the unit and the group's alleged links
\nwith the PKI became the pretext for the massacre of up to 1m
\npeople. After a series of closed show trials and staged
\nconfessions, the leaders were said to have been executed, but
\nthere is no independent evidence that the executions took place.<\/p>\n
It has been known for more than 10 years that the CIA supplied
\nlists of names for Soeharto's assassination squads. What is less
\nwidely known is that the supposed pro-communist coup that
\ntriggered the crisis was almost certainly also the work of the
\nCIA. Sukarno was finally removed from power in 1967.<\/p>\n
Soeharto, meanwhile, was offered economic aid and the British
\nlifted their embargo on sales of military aircraft. Soeharto's
\nmassacres were whitewashed in a campaign of disinformation in
\nwhich the British government willingly participated. The
\noperation to \"save\" Indonesia, according to enthusiastic reports
\nin, among others, the Atlantic Monthly, was a resounding success.
\n\"Soeharto,\" Atlantic Monthly assured its readers, \"is regarded by
\nIndonesians who know him well as incorruptible ... In attacking
\nthe communists, he was not acting as a western puppet; he was
\ndoing simply what he believed to be best for Indonesia.\"<\/p>\n
Best for Indonesia in Soeharto's view, was the granting of
\nlucrative concessions to western mining and oil companies. It was
\nthe beginning of a post-independence economic order that
\ncontinues today. After 32 years, Soeharto was finally overthrown.
\nBy then, even the U.S. government had to admit that he was one of
\nthe most corrupt dictators of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
-- Guardian News Service<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/how-britain-and-us-covered-up-ri-massacre-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }