Stop screening film on 1965 coup: LBH

Stop screening film on 1965 coup: LBH

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Legal Aid Office here has urged Minister
of Information Muhammad Yunus to stop requiring television
stations to screen the film G-30 S/PKI on the September 1965
attempted coup before the facts concerning the event were
clarified.

The LBH said in a recent statement that so far there were
indications that the film, which all television stations are
required to screen on the evening of Sept. 30 each year, "was
laden with political engineering to favor the Soeharto regime".

The film, directed by Arifin C. Noer and produced in 1982, has
been praised for its convincing portrayal of characters,
including Amoroso Katamsi as the then Maj. Gen. Soeharto and
writer Umar Kayam as first president Sukarno. Many viewers have
complained about the length of the film, which runs for 271
minutes, and that there are no other options on TV when it is
screened.

But the government's version of the coup attempt by the now-
outlawed Indonesian Communist Party has been questioned in some
circles, such as by academics.

The film has been shown each year since 1984 to commemorate
Pancasila Sanctity Day on Oct. 1, when the coup was aborted. The
commemoration refers to the considered common faith in the
ideology which defeated communist forces.

LBH director A. Budi Hartono said the event was closely linked
to the issuance of the Supersemar, the executive order signed on
March 11, 1966. The document supposedly empowered Maj. Gen.
Soeharto to take all necessary steps to restore peace and order
following the bloodshed and demonstrations against the government
after the attempted coup. The whereabouts of the original
document is unknown.

LBH Yogyakarta is the legal counselor of a former bodyguard of
first president Sukarno who recently spurred a fresh debate on
the Supersemar. The ex-bodyguard at the Bogor Presidential
Palace, Soekardjo Wilardjito, has retracted his statement in
which he claimed three generals who presented the document to
Sukarno were brandishing pistols at the time. He has backtracked
and said the generals were only gripping their guns.

Budi said because his client's version differed from the
government's version, it should serve as an important source to
reconstruct both the attempted coup and the Supersemar document.

"Only after that, a new film could be made," Budi said.

Soekardjo was jailed for 12 years without trial for
involvement in the Communist Party, he said. (23/44)