Children of slain generals demand truth

Children of slain generals demand truth

By Budiman Moerdijat

JAKARTA (JP): Children of Army generals slain during the 1965
coup attempt blamed on the now outlawed Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) called on 10 newly released political prisoners to
reveal the truth about the event.

Riyanto Nurhadi, 43, the son of Maj. Gen. Harjono Mas
Tirtodarmo, one of the generals killed in the coup attempt, told
The Jakarta Post on Saturday he hoped the freed political
prisoners would begin "the process of revising history".

"I have a feeling that someday they will tell us the true
version of the 1965 abortive coup," Riyanto, who was nine when
his father was killed, said.

The other five generals killed in the coup attempt were Army
chief of staff Lt. Gen. Ahmad Yani, Maj. Gen. R. Soeprapto, Maj.
Gen. S. Parman, Brig. Gen. D.I. Pandjaitan and Brig. Gen. Soetojo
S. Their bodies were dumped into a disused well in the Lubang
Buaya district in East Jakarta.

On Thursday, the government released the 10 political
prisoners, who had served more than 30 years in jail. Minister of
Justice Muladi said the move was aimed at "speeding up the
process of national reconciliation".

The 10 were released under a March 17 presidential decree.

Among those released were Abdul Latief, 72, a former Army
colonel, Boengkoes, 72, a former Army chief sergeant, Marsudi bin
Marzuki, 72, a former Air Force sergeant major, and Asep
Suryaman, 73.

Muladi said the 10 political prisoners were released because
they had shown good conduct and because of other humanitarian
considerations, including their age and deteriorating health.

Riyanto said he welcomed the release.

"As a human being, I feel 33 years in jail is enough because
they are not the only people suffering... their families suffer
too."

"My mother and our whole family do not hold any grudges
against them. We only hope they will not keep silent after all
these years," he added.

Most of the 10 were jailed shortly after the coup attempt on
Sept. 30, 1965. Dozens had already been executed, while those who
survived have had their sentences commuted. Latief's original
death sentence was commuted to life in prison, while Boengkoes,
Asep and Marsudi were on death row until their release.

Latief said after his release he would someday write a book
about the 1965 attempted coup. The father of six claims former
president Soeharto, who rose to power in the aftermath of the
abortive coup, knew about the attempted coup beforehand.

Immediately after the attempted coup, Soeharto, then an Army
major general, banned the PKI, second only to China as the
largest communist party in the world, and all communist
teachings.

While no one disputed the abduction and killing of the six
generals, there were debates about who were the real force behind
the killings.

Engineering

The Army, led by Maj. Gen. Soeharto, laid the blame squarely
on the PKI and this has since become the official version until
Soeharto's downfall in May. Academics at Cornell University in
New York however have written an analysis paper suggesting that
the putcsh was an internal power struggle within the Army.

"History has been engineered to serve the interests of the New
Order regime. The PKI and the Air Force were made scapegoats,"
Tuti Pandjaitan, 44, the daughter of D.I. Pandjaitan, told the
Post.

Tuti, who was 11 when her father was killed, said Latief and
the other released political prisoners "must help the nation
unveil what really happen during the 1965 coup attempt".

"We do knot know whether the New Order regime's version of
the coup attempt is true."

A docudrama about the coup attempt, aired annually since the
early-1980s on the eve of the coup attempt's anniversary, has
long been derided as blatant propaganda denouncing communism and
validating Soeharto's New Order.

It was not shown last year, four months after Soeharto stepped
down.

Meanwhile, Nani Nurahman, the daughter of Soetojo S., warned
the public against exploiting the government's release of
political prisoners involved in the 1965 upheaval.

"This will only open old wounds for both the former political
prisoners and relatives of the slain generals."

"Give them a chance to meet and spend time with their families
because they will need time to heal their psychological wounds,"
Nani, who was 15 when her father was killed, told the Post.

Boengkoes broke into tears during a live interview on SCTV on
Saturday as he recounted the time when he abducted Maj. Gen.
Harjono in the morning of Oct. 1, 1965. He stressed that he was
under orders to capture the general "dead or alive".

"It is unwise to question them during this fragile period.
Just let them tell historians, psychologist or religious leaders
what they went through," Nani said.