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.