Discussion: Have you heard of the Indonesia Massacres between 1965-66?

Aviana

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In the course of little more than five months from late 1965 to early 1966, anti-communist Indonesians killed about half a million of their fellow citizens. Nearly all the victims were associated with Indonesia's Left, especially with the Communist Party (PKI)

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As 250 million Indonesians face up to the 50th anniversary of one of the most crushing episodes of our nation’s history – the massacre of up to 500,000 or more alleged Communists between 1965 and 1968 by the Suharto regime – the business of confronting the past has reached a new urgency. And it is an urgency that has only a week ago was sharpened by new disappointments.

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Absurdly, not only has this steady propaganda produced a generation schooled in silence and apathy; it has also given birth to successive generations that are wholly ignorant of that period of history. A survey published by the Jakarta Globe in 2009 showed that more than half of the respondents comprising university students in Jakarta had never even heard of the mass killings of 1965-1966. Never mind the fact that it happened to be, as stated by a CIA report, “one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the second world war, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s.” Thus, any sign that “1965” has not been forgotten is a burst of fresh air, a salve to the soul.

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The victims, many of them ethnically Chinese Indonesians, were accused of being communists and opponents of the then Suharto regime.

The resulting bloodshed remains one of the largest mass killings the world has ever seen.

Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said the United States Government was under increasing pressure to release classified CIA and defence papers relating to what some say was genocide.

"We want to know the working level involvement between the US Government and the killers in 1965," he said.

SOURCE:http://www.insideindonesia.org/the-killings-of-1965-66
http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...nnot-look-away
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-1...ssacre/7334296

I felt I have to post this thread after watching the documentary The Act of Killing, a film about this long buried genocide, it was one of the greatest documentaries I've ever watched, my brain and stomach are still twisting.

If you've never heard of this part of history, please google it and read the facts, this genocide should not be ignored nor should it be forgotten.

WARNING: Please don't google the images about the massacre if you are not prepared..

Can't_M!ss_This

Oh no. I hope they rest in peace. I have a friend in Jakarta and he probably doesn't know this. He's not too worldly and isn't really educated. Smaller village farming family by the looks of it.

Aviana

These are from wikipedia:

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To Western governments, the killings and purges were seen as a victory over Communism at the height of the Cold War. Western governments and much of the West's media preferred Suharto and the "New Order" to the PKI and the increasingly leftist "Old Order".[92] The British ambassador, Andrew Gilchrist, wrote to London: "I never concealed from you my belief that a little shooting in Indonesia would be an essential preliminary to effective change.

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A headline in U.S. News & World Report read: "Indonesia: Hope... where there was once none".[95] Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt commented in The New York Times, "With 500,000 to 1 million Communist sympathizers knocked off, I think it is safe to assume a reorientation has taken place."

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Time described the suppression of the PKI as "The West's best news for years in Asia,"[98] and praised Suharto's regime as "scrupulously constitutional."[99] "It was a triumph for Western propaganda," Robert Challis, a BBC reporter in the area, later reflected.

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The right-wing oilman H. L. Hunt proclaimed Indonesia the sole bright spot for the United States in the Cold War and called the ouster of Sukarno the “greatest victory for Freedom since the last decisive battle of World War II."[

This is so dark, disgusting history.

Zhuge Liang

Yeah this happened. Just like every other countries have a dark history.

fabilicious

I forgot the name but I watched a really powerful documentary about this.

Aviana

Quote:

Originally posted by fabilicious

I forgot the name but I watched a really powerful documentary about this.

The Act of Killing

Typhlosion

Yes. It was horrible. My Grandfather and my father experienced it.

Victon

Yeah, the most horrible history that ever happened in Indonesia and I used to watch the documentary every 30th, September the film was broadcasted nationally in my Country Indonesia.

It left so many mysteries and the government officially took this from Indonesian's history because of propaganda and now we are clean enough to expose everything hidden , thanks to the power of press and social media.

Reinvention

Never knew about this!

And to think I spent my good tourist dollars throughout Bali.

Then again, it's hardly the current locals fault for a 50-yr old genocide. But still.