Nation commemorates crushing of coup attempt

Nation commemorates crushing of coup attempt

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia commemorated yesterday the 30th
anniversary of the crushing of the bloody coup attempt, blamed on
the Indonesian Communist Party, with one official repeating
warnings about the latent danger of communism in the country.

Commemorative activities were centered on Lubang Buaya, East
Jakarta, where the mutilated bodies of six Army generals were
dumped in a disused well by the coup plotters, after they
abducted and murdered them on Sept. 30, 1965.

The silent ceremony, broadcast live by television and radio
stations, was led by President Soeharto. Numerous top government
and military officials, as well as the generals' widows, were on
hand.

Indonesia observes Oct. 1 as Pancasila Sanctity Day, in
commemoration of the success of the military operation under Maj.
Gen. Soeharto, the then chief of the Army Strategic Reserve
Command, against the communists.

Indonesian flags were flown at half-mast on Saturday and
raised to full-mast yesterday as ceremonies were held
simultaneously across the country.

Soeharto did not make any speech. House Speaker Wahono recited
the state ideology Pancasila and Minister of Education and
Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro recited the 1945 Constitution's
preamble. The commemoration was closed with a prayer led by
Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher.

The president then made a brief tour to the well at Lubang
Buaya, which translates literally as "crocodile hole", and shook
hands with the generals' widows while heroic songs filled the
sweltering morning air.

Over the past several days, Indonesian officials have talked
more about the latent danger of communism. They have said that
Indonesians, especially the generation born after the events of
1965, should learn how communists try to poison their minds.

Yesterday, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and
Security Soesilo Soedarman told journalists that there were a lot
of foreign publications which gave other versions of the 1965
coup attempt.

Soesilo said that many writings on the coup attempt were
"biased" and that Indonesia has no adequate resources to counter
them.

He made the remarks in response to journalists' questions
about the recent publication of declassified documents of the
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency pertaining to the events
surrounding the coup attempt.

According to Soesilo, Indonesians should read those documents
critically because, he said, "not all the information there is
accurate."

He declined to specify the particular points in the CIA
reports that the Indonesian government disputes.

While the Indonesian government insists that the communist
party was to blame for the coup, as well as the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of people in the aftermath, numerous
publications question the extent of the communist leaders'
involvement in the events of 1965.

Soesilo said that he has tried to counter the assertions of
biased publications several times on official visits to European
countries, the U.S. and Russia.

He said that, in order to counter the false accounts, he has
instructed the State Secretariat to always send copies of any
books about Indonesia to 14 institutions in the U.S.

"One copy should be given to the Library of Congress and the
remaining 13 copies to the country's well-known universities," he
said. (imn)

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