JP/2/PKI

Sept. 30 tragedy still leaves scars unhealed

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak The Jakarta Post Jakarta

After 37 years, the Sept. 30, 1965 coup blamed on the former Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) still remains a mystery and a source of suffering to those labeled as PKI and their descendants.

A number of documents and testimonies which spring up periodically contradict the government's version of events of the coup which led to the murder of some 500,000 people.

The latest version came from CIA documents detailing the U.S.'s secret Cold War era support for the anti-communist campaign targeting the PKI which was believed to be allied with founding president Sukarno.

The documents, released by the U.S. State Department last year, show a U.S. plan to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to an action group, which was said to be army-inspired but civilian- staffed.

Historian Asvi Warman Adam from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said the PKI may not have been the only culprit.

"We can see that the U.S. was playing a role in the tragedy, few of the PKI elite were involved, and there were also conflicts within the Army. The government should analyze these versions in order to reveal the truth so we may reconcile with the past," he told The Jakarta Post by telephone on Sunday.

Seven Army generals were killed in the coup's aftermath. They were believed to be Sukarno loyalists who were opponents of Lt. Gen. Soeharto's faction in the Army. Soeharto was commanding the Army's Strategic Reverse (Kostrad) at that time.

Under the command of Soeharto, who later succeeded Sukarno as president until May 1998, at least 500,000 people labeled as PKI members or supporters were slain while millions of their descendants were, and still are, deprived of their rights as citizens.

The number, according to Asvi, does not include the victim's families and relatives who were also killed in the carnage. The official number given by the government is 78,000 people, with 300 listed as nationalists or from religious groups.

Around 10,000 others were jailed on Buru Island, most of them without standing trial. Many others fled overseas.

Dependents of those labeled as PKI supporters lost their rights as citizens to have positions in the government or to work as civil servants, while they are obliged to report their whereabouts to police regularly.

The Air Force -- which at that time was Sukarno's favorite and was also blamed for the coup with several top officers such as the former chief of the Air Force, marshall Omar Dhani, jailed -- has "been marginalized" for more than three decades.

Rear Marshall (ret.) Sri Mulyono Herlambang stated in a book titled Menyingkap Kabut Halim (Unveiling the Mist in Halim), that the Air Force had been accused of planning to destroy Kostrad Headquarters in Gambir, Central Jakarta.

"Many facts had been manipulated for the interests of many groups, including politicians and the military. Now, we want our tarnished image to be rehabilitated but the government has yet to do so."

Last year, former president Abdurrahman Wahid proposed revoking a 1966 Provisional People's Consultative Assembly decree banning communism and the teaching of Marxism and socialism in Indonesia, only to meet strong opposition from those claiming to be victims of the PKI in the past.

Hardline groups have even seized and burned books they believe were aimed at disseminating teachings on communism.

Human rights campaigners have called for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to allow the country to come to terms with its traumatic past, but the House of Representatives had yet to debate its establishment.

Coordinator of the National Committee of the 1965 Human Tragedy, Gustaf Dupe, criticized the government for its lack of political will to lift discriminatory regulations against those who bear the label as PKI, a label that was usually given to Soeharto's opponents in a bid to justify their elimination.

"As a first step, the Minister of Home Affairs can revoke a 1981 instruction which gives authority down to the smallest administration to monitor those indicated as PKI members.

"Without clarifying the tragedy and rehabilitation of the PKI- accused, how can this nation reconcile?," he told the Post.