After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 Jan 1978)

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (1978-01-19) - After 12 Years Freedom Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article250329420 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 19 Jan 1978 - AFTER 12 YEARS FREEDOM Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (Port Moresby: 1969 - 1981), Thursday 19 January 1978, page 5 H L L I #By GEORGE OLIVERThe 10,000 political prisoners just released in Indonesia were freed in ceremonies held at a number of camps throughout the sprawling archipelago.Detainees had first publicly to swear an oath of allegiance to the state and condone all the Government's a c t-ions against them. Then they were allowed to leave. Some, from the distant prison island of Buru in the Moluccas, set sail by boat for Surabaya in Java, a journey expected to take a week. Many of the detainees had been held for 12 years, since an attempted coup against the government of the late President Soekarno. The official version of the events of that notorious night of September, 1965, is that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was trying to overthrow the Government. Members of the Presidential bodyguard kidnapped and murdered six of the senior generals. At that time the PKI had grown to a membership of three million, to become the largest communist party outside the Soviet Union and China. Its increasing influence in the government of President Soekarno was a serious challenge to the traditional power of the army leadership. However, a more credible version is that the coup was an internal army revolt inwhich disenchanted middle-ranking officers tried to destroy the leadership of the Indonesian Army. One of the most senior generals to escape the plotters' sword was the then little-known General Soeharto, who moved quickly to restore order in Jakarta, and to reestablish the loyalty of the military to the President. Within a year Soeharto had replaced Soekarno as President, the position he has occupied ever since. Whatever the truth of the September 30 coup, there is no disputing the aftermath, except as regards figures. A massive inquisition began in which all members of the PKI and of groups regarded as sympathetic to communism came under suspicion of involvement directly or indirectly in the plot. A massacre ensued in which it is believed as many as half a million communists and others were killed. Somewhere b e t w een half and three quarters of a million—noone is sure of the exact number — were arrested, and new arrests have continued more than 10 years after the event. Though the PKI was prescribed, the Government still believes that pockets of communist activity existin Indonesia, a substantially Muslim country. For this reason they justify the continued detention of suspected communists and sympathisers, the vast majority of them never having been brought to trial. Prisoners held in detention camps throughout Ind o n e s i a are divided into three categories, denoting the degree to which they were implicated in the coup. High level suspects the Government says were directly involved are in Category A, of whom there are nearly 2000. It is planned to bring those not already tried — perhaps 800 have been tried— before a court at a rate of 200 a year. Category B consists of those said to have been implicated in the coup but against whom there is insufficient evidence to put them on trial. Most prisoners in Category B were members of the PKI or one of its associated organisations such as the Gerwani women's movement and Pemuda Rakyat, the young communists. There are also former members of the Chinese people's organisation Baperki, the leftwing writers' society LEKRA, the trade union federation SOBSI and the peasants' union BTI. The third group Category C, were de-signated communist sympathisers not directly involved in the plot. The Government claims that all in this category have now been released. The latest releases come in the wake of a policy announcement in December 1976 by the head of the county's security bureau Kopkamtib, Admiral Sudomo. He said that the Government planned to release all Category B prisoners by 1979. Some 2500 were released in December 1976 and 10,000 in December 1977. Ten thousand are to be freed in each of the next two years. The delay in making the promised releases, according to Admiral Sudomo, is because of the unemployment problem in Indonesia and the fear that joblessness will- discour age the prisoners from reforming their ways. He also cited the need for the Government to ensure that a budget is available for r e h a b i li t ation and transmigration of released detainees. One of the most persistent critics of the Indonesian detentions is the Londonbased human rights organisation and 1977 Nobel Peace Prtae winner Amnesty International. Earlier in theyear they published a 148-page report on political imprisonment in Indonesia. Pointing to the inconsistency in Government statements on numbers detained, compared with admitted releases, Amnesty International suggest that the real number in detention could be as high as 100,000. Indonesia mav be holding more political prisoners than any other country, believes Amnesty International. The report condemns the continued detention of untried prisoners and describes the process of imprisonment as "a completely extra-legal military monopoly". Although Amnesty's, agitation about Indonesia. and its adoption of Indonesian prisoners as sponsored prisoners of conscience, has clearly irritated President Soeharto's Government, other pressures may have been more influential in bringing about the programmed releases. Even before President Jimmy Carter's human rights' clarion call was sounded, the US Congress had been showing increasing concern about the scale of political detention in Indonesia. The decision of President Carter's administration to cut military aid to Indonesia from 1978 has endorsed the fact that the US is serious in its concern about the deprivation of human rights. And, more surreptitiously, the U.S. issaid to have sought assurances about releases from Soeharto before agreeing to continue its Food for Peace program to Indonesia. which has yet to achieve its projected self-s u f f i c i e n c.v in grain. But other countries which have to toe appeased include the Eastern European bloc, in particular the Soviet Union. Since the coup attempt of 1965 Indonesia's relations with communist countries have been cool, and were suspended in China, which was allegedly implicated in the coup. But lately a thaw has set in, and Indonesia has increasingly enjoyed development aid from the countries of Eastern Europe. Though the Indonesian Government denies that international pressure has led bo thereleases, clearly it is sensitive to increasing criticism. Just before the lattest releases Admiral Sudomo threw open the doors of the county's detention camps to diplomats and journalists to see for themselves that allegations of harsh conditions were ill-founded. And the maiss release itself was made something of a spectacle with the Security Chief himself presiding over one release ceremony at a prison camp in North Sumatra. to which diplomats were invited. But if international pressure has had someeffect on the detention program so, too, have domestic political factors. Early this year Soeharto faces re-election for a third time, and recent unrest, particularly among students, suggests he will face some opposition. Though last year's general election, which paved the way for the Presidential vote, gave the government renewed massive support, there was a signficant anti-government vote, too, showing strong opposition in certain regions to government policies. Overseas the latest releases have been cautiously welcomed. But, as Amnesty's head of Asia research Huang Wenhcien points out, many untried detainees remain. He further expressed unease about the precise nature of the release since the government has admitted that many of those freed will be moved to new areas to avoid exacerbating the intense overcrowding on the central islands of Java and Bali. There are fears that release for these prisoners may mean only transfer to another form of detention in a transmigration area in the outer Indonesian islands. Clearly the mass release is an important development, but Indonesia's critics are not likely to ease their campaign for complete freedom for all political detainees.