Bloody orgy at Halim air base (Canberra Times, 15 April 1966)

The Canberra Times (1966-04-15) - Bloody orgy at Halim air base Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128653303 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 15 Apr 1966 - Bloody orgy at Halim air base Canberra Times (ACT: 1926 - 1995), Friday 15 April 1966, page 10 Young members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) had been gathering at Halim air base, seven miles from Djakarta, since 3am on October I, 1965. The bodies of two generals who had been shot the night before in the uprising, and four others who had been captured,, were brought to Halim. Here the article begun on Page 2 yesterday is concluded.Halimorgy at air baseAmong the waiting groups were 100members of the Indonesian CommunistWomen's Movements called GERWAN1. One of their numberwas a Mrs Djamilah, born 15 years ago in East Java.This is part of her story, as reported in the Djakarta Mail of November 15:"Small knives and razor blades were distributed. I only got a razor blade! From afar we'' saw a thick-set man wearing sleeping clolhes, hands bound with red cloth and eyes also covered with red cloth."The platoon leader commanded us to beat up that person, then to cut his private parls. The first to start the beating and cutting we saw to be leaders of the Tandjung Priok branch of GERWANI."Then followed other comrades... Finally I myself joined in the torture. All of the 100 women did likewise and were witnesses...Shot three timesand fell"The victim was shot three times and then fell down, but was not yet dead. A green-uniformed person wearing three crooked white bars on the shoulder ordered the actions..."Mrs Djamilah is now in custody. She was three: months pregnant when the incident took place.Afterwards, to the sounds of dancing and thechorus of a song callcd. People's Blood, the eyes of the ' victims weregouged out. A policemanwho watched the scenefrom hiding later described it as "like something from deepest hell: no-one seemedBy a Special Conespondentto have any humanity left."When the bloodbath was over, the bodies were thrown into a deep welland covered with rubbish. So barbarously had they been mutilated that later, when ihey were recovered, only scraps of clothing, rings arid wrist-yatches served to identify them.The murderers (if that is a strong enough word) had, however, failed to land one.catch — the biggest of all. This was General Abdel Haris Nasution, most famous of all Indonesian soldiers, 'author of a classic book on guerrilla warfare ranked with those of Mao and the Cuban Che Guevera, yet himself staunchly anti-Communist. Too many minds are blocked by the memory of that hideous night for a picture of what went on at the home of General Nasution to be precise. But this is the skeleton of the story.Untung's soldiers, again armed with faked messages summoning Nasution to ' Sukarno's palace, wereprevented from entering his house by armed guards. There was some shooting, and a guard and at least one policeman were killed.Heroism ofADCNasution's ADC, a young lieutenant called 'Pierre Tendean, was aroused by the shots. He alerted Nasution and his family, and warned them that their lives might.be in danger.Lieutenant Teridean, who was about Nasution's height and build, then did a remarkable thing. He donned Nasution's uniform jacket, pulled on the general's peaked cap. and wentoutside. When asked whether he was General Nasution, he answered, "Yes. I am." He was dragged off into a lorry— later, for his bravery, to suffer the same terrible fate as the captured generals.Meanwhile Mrs Nasution was pleading with her husband to escape while there was still time. Nasution at first refused: but quickly Untung's gang returned. They had discovered in the ■lorry, by torch-light, thatthey had captured thewrong man.Nasution was virtually pushed out of a window into the back garden by his wife. He escaped by climbing over the garden wall, injuring a leg in doing so.Mrs Nasution locked herself in the bedroom of of her five-year-old daughter. Untung's men shot down the door, and fired several times at the child.Counler-coupwas swiftWhen they had gone, Mrs Nasution rushed into the street with the child and managed to get a lift to the hospital. But, although the child was obviously critically hurt (she died soon afterwards) Mrs Nasution took time to alert' the marine corps and the police. Her resourcefulness that night undoubtedly changed the whole course of the revolt.In the hectic hours that followed, the news of Nasution's survival served as an inspiration and. a rallying cry of those Army leaders who had escaped the Hood purge.:One clear order got through, and was obeyed: the Army was toremain loyal to General.Nasution and its new commander-in-chief, GeneralSuharto. Suharto.The counter-coup followed swiftly. Within 24 hours the palace and most of the strategic points in Djakarta had been recaptured by General Suharto's men. There was little resistance from Untung's followers. Loyal troops found the captors of the radio station loking acutely embarrassed, being harangued by a threatening crowd ofcleaners and technical workers arrived to tackle their early-morning chores. In the main Untung's gang, having no idea what to do next, meekly surrendered.Untung himself, no doubt realising at last that he had been an expendable tool of Aidit and the PKI, fled. He managed to remain at liberty for some days, being captured while travelling in a bus inappropriately labelled"Lucky". "Lucky".Aidit himself, realising that all was lost, escaped by plane to central Java, where he managed to stay at liberty for some weeks before being captured and shot. Without communications or instructions from above, the local branches of the PKI1 could not mobilise. Methodically the Army began to round the Communists up.Terrible weekssinceThe staff of the enormous Chinese Embassy in Djakarta quickly bought food and drink in preparation for a siege, and barricaded themselves in. Diplomatic bags crammed with pictures and posters of Aidit. specially printed in Red China for the occasion, were hurriedly locked in godown stores — later: to be shipped out of the country again.The subsequent weeksGeneral NasutionDr Suhandriohave been terrible ones. Reprisals and counterreprisals between Communists and Muslims have come near to creating civil war, not only in the thickly populated island of Java but in Ihe other islands of Indonesia. Numbers of the dead vary from Sukarno's own published estimate of 87,000 to the not impossible figure of half a million. The vast majority of the victims on the Communist side were almost certainly mere cardcarriers, bullied into joining the party by tougher cadres. There are stories of rivers choked with corpses, racial massacrcs, the wiping out of.whole families.Yet, hideous though the picture is, few can doubt lhat had the Communists been on the winning side it would have been uglier still. t •/In (his tale of "carnal, bloody and unnatural acts," many, questions are still unanswered.What role, if any, was played behind the scenes by Dr Su ba ndrio,Sukarno's Foreign Minister? What were the movements of the President himself during those fateful hours? ''Subandrio was out of Djakarta on September 30, visiting Sumatra.' During the first day of the coup, no message whatever came from him. In the confusion of that day, a clear callof support for his Presi- k dent and the non-Communist Army would have saved thousands of lives./Subandrio was dumb. Was /he waiting to see which way the bandwaggon was rolling?Certainly he had been among the most ardent defenders of the PKI. Asheir presumptive, on the •. death of Sukarno (who is President for life), Subandrio would have had to rely principally on Communist support, since other groups in Indonesia have disavowed him.Hand on the Koran, Subandrio recently confided to Indonesian radio listeners: "In Allah's name, T swear I am not involved in the coup and I have ■nothing to do with it."