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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