CIA's role in anti-communist drive denied

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said here yesterday that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had nothing to do with Indonesia's campaign to crush the Communist Party (PKI) in 1965.

"The operation to destroy the PKI was totally and successfully done by Indonesians alone," he told a delegation of Muhammadiyah leaders at his Bina Graha office.

"There was not a grain of aid from the CIA," he said as quoted by Amin Rais, the acting chairman of the country's largest socio- educational organization, who led the delegation in a meeting with the President at Bina Graha.

Amin told newsmen after the meeting that Soeharto said the cooperation between the CIA and the Indonesian army at the time was focused on a "civic mission".

Accusations that the nationwide anti-communist campaign in the wake of the abortive communist coup attempt in 1965 was financed by the CIA were launched by a former diplomat in a book recently published here.

In the controversial book, Manai Sophiaan, Indonesian ambassador to the Soviet Union during president Sukarno's administration, said the student demonstrations against both Sukarno and the communists, which helped bring about the banning of the PKI and the president's downfall, were financed by the CIA.

Amin said he personally was of the opinion that Manai's accusations were not only groundless, but were meant to humiliate local businessmen and other parties who aided the student upheaval.

Reports about the so-called "CIA-Indonesian army relationship" of the past were also carried by The Los Angeles Times this week.

The report, quoted by The Jakarta Post yesterday, said the CIA conducted covert operations in Indonesia during the 1950s when it feared communist influence over then president Sukarno.

Documentary

The 600-page documentary history, released this month by the U.S. State Department, said that president Dwight Eisenhower's administration mounted major operations to support anti-communist rebels in Indonesia.

However, the report said further, when it became clear that the rebels could not succeed, the U.S. president changed course and threw support to the regular Indonesian Army in the hopes it would be a counterweight to Sukarno and the PKI.

In the meeting with Soeharto, Muhammadiyah leaders reported the recent changing of the guard within the organization, following the death of chairman Achmad Azhar Basyir.

They also informed Soeharto that Muhammadiyah would hold an executive meeting in the Central Java town of Solo at the end of next month and a congress in Aceh in July next year.

"The President has expressed his willingness to open the congress," Amin said. (tis)