The forgotten massacre: 'More killed than in Vietnam so far' (Tribune, 21 Januari 1970)

Tribune (1970-01-21) - More Killed Than In Vietnam So Far The Forgotten Massacre Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article237506834 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 21 Jan 1970 - "MORE KILLED THAN IN VIETNAM SO FAR" Tribune (Sydney, NSW: 1939 - 1991), Wednesday 21 January 1970, page 8 '©"MORE KILLED THAN IN VIETNAM SO FAR"The forgotten massacreThis article is extracted from material recently published in the Hong Kong magazine "Eastern Horizon". It originated in letters from an Indonesian under the name ( assumed, for obvious reasons) of BARBRO KARABUDA."EVERYBODY'S forgotten now that we killed a million of them. "In fact, it can't possiblynave oeen a million, perhaps there were only 700,000. The rest of the world has forgotten too, just as we have. After all, it's three years since it happened." That is what I was told in Djakarta by a member of the Indonesian Government. "Fortunately the massacre of the Communists did not lead to strong protests abroad. Our problem has never been the dead Communists but those who are still alive in our prisons and concentration camps."Officially, "Officially, there are 86,000 of them, but in reality there are possibly twice as many. Had we cut all their throats, we should have escaped the boring problem of their imprisonment." The anti-Left bloodbath at the end of 1965 and the beginning of 1966 cost Indonesia more dead than the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima or the war in Vietnam to date; its victims are today buried and decomposed. There are still however the living prisoners, some of whom die daily from undernourishment or the harsh treatment to which they are subjected. What will become of them? It is too late now for them just to "disappear." "We have divided the detainees into three groups, A. B. and C, in terms of the danger they represent," I was told. "According to official statistics, we have at present 14,542 A detainees, 14,458 B, 24,000 C group, and another 33,000 as yet unclassified. You could easily multiply these figures by two! Corrupt "What's to be done? Prisons and camps are full to bursting. There is a shortage of food, medicine and administrative media."The The Indonesian budget guarantees every political detainee an average daily food ration of 7.7 rupiahs (about 10c), which would be adequate at most to buy a cupful of rice, though that is rare. I've seen the prisoners mixing spinach and grains of wheat to form a paste which they eke out with cold water and eat raw. None of the internment camps in Indonesia has a kitchen. Matters went so far that the Indonesian Government even considered (in an excess of shame) asking for United Nations assistance to feed the prisoners. Unfortunately there is a danger that any suchaid would immediately be absorbed by the pockets of the corrupt army rather than by the stomachs of the detainees. Torture is a widespread practice in Indonesian prisons. A Bandung warder sought to exonerate himself by specifying that in his camp only indirect torture was used; this means that there was no direct contact of a human hand with the prisoner at the critical moment, electricity being passed through the testicles or breasts. A further refined indirect method consists in interrogating a prisoner while another is howling with pain in an adjoining room. The fate of many Communists in Indonesia remains unknown. It has not even been established in many cases that they were Communists. One relative said: "My elderly uncle in Solo (Surakarta) doesn't even know what communism means. He had joined the village Communist co-operative so as to obtain additional artificial manure. Now he's in gaol, if not dead..." Putsch All the important leaders of the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, have 'gone' today: dead, in concentration camps, or in the mountains.., Although the present Indonesian Government claims "The attempted coup of September 30, 1965, was definitely the work of the PKI," there are no tangible proofs in support of this association, even though some rather junior officers who took part were known for their communist sympathies.Those Those best informed swear that the Communist leader Aidit kept his party out of the ill-starred putsch which Colonel Untung, the chief of Sukarno's personal bodyguard, had directed against the ten or so generals suspected of preparing a coup for the 5th of October of the same year. Six of them had perished before the Colonel was captured on October l by the survivors, whereupon frightful reprisals were launched against the Indonesian people. An army officer said: "At first, many of them were shot, but we then received the order to save our ammunition since nobody was offering resistance. They reached us with their wrists tied behind their backs. I was in Mid-Java during the hottest part of it, and the good work I carried out earned me congratulations. I believe we killed at least 200,000 in that area.""How many did you murder in Bali?'' "About 90 to 100 thousand. It may seem a lot, but we were thorough and let wives and children follow the heads of families to death." The Communist leader Nusantara Aidit who had managed to go into hiding in Mid-Java for some time after the coup was captured in November 1965 and shot. The previous year, Sukarno had awarded him the highest order in Indonesia, that of Mahaputra ("best son in the land"), his party, the third largest Communist Party in the world, had at the time.three million members, with 15 to 20 million sympathisers distributed throughout the islands, out of a total population of- 110 million inhabitants. What happened afterwards to his wife, Tanti Aidit, 40-year-old doctor of medicine? I searched long without success for precise data about her fate. I did find her (naturally without any official assistance) in the Bukit Duriwomen's prison in Djakarta, with her mother-in-law Madame Ni Mudigdo, a former member of parliament, and 128 other women, political detainees. She was under close supervision. We only managed to meet her gaze very briefly, but succeeded in photographing her secretly in the company of other women imprisoned without a trial for an indefinite time, accused of "subversive activities."Former Former Foreign Minister Subandrio, condemned to death, is detained in Bandung prison.Ex-president Ex-president Sukarno is alive under home arrest. 'Why hasn't he been given a trial?" Malik, Minister of Foreign Affairs was asked and replied: "Because we're not through with him yet..."When the sun has set over Djakarta it is the moment for the "Army of Bats" to strike stealthily against "political criminals" who are brought for cross-examination, torture and imprisonment... "Few will" admit it openly, but in town 'we all live in fear," I was told. "Of course, in Europe you suppose the whole frightful affair is now over. That's just what the Government would have you believe. Who would dare to maintain the contrary? Yet massacres are going on daily in the islands... "Since the Bats first came for me two years ago, I haven't had a single night's real rest. Since then, I've been 'inside' four times, and each time I was freed thanks to my good connections. Not everyone is so lucky; I'm rich but I'm also Chinese." The position of the Chinese in Indonesia is doubly complicated because in their case it is not merely a matter of their being, or not being, Communists. They also belong to another race. Many Chinese sought refuge abroad after the start of the troubles in 1965, though they had to pay enormous sums to the Indonesian immigration officials to be able to leave the country. Others who wished to stay behind were forced to leave. 40,000 are still behind the wall of Indonesian prisons. The Chinese quarter of Djakarta is a ghetto where residences and shops are protected by heavy metal gates, following the destruction of thousands of houses in early 1968 when 400 people were injured and a score killed. Chinese An Indonesian Chinese told me: "Almost anything can be bought with money in Indonesia. I myself have had an Indonesian passport for a long time, but between 1.5 and 3 million Chinese still have a foreign passport in this country, usually one issued by Peking. "Some years ago, they might still have opted freely for an Indonesian passport. Now, it's too late, and they can only be procured by paying a fortune, if at all." The decorative Chinese signs which used to adorn every shop in the district have been removed step by step as every Chinese of Indonesian nationality has had to change his Chinese name for an Indo-nesian one. This is regarded as a move towards a "policy of voluntary integration". "Either we are about to see a false process of integration by the Indonesians, else we shall be thrown out of the country or into gaol. We can never feel at ease. Every time there is trouble with the Com-munists, we suffer. "Indonesia is still our birthplace; people aren't necessarily Communists.because they happen to be Chinese; rather the contrary in view of the sizable private capital many of us have." In Indonesian prisons and camps, the Chinese have become remarkable milch cows for minor army officers, who can supplement their income handsomely at the expense of the detainees' families. "Just pay and we'll free him! Pay, and he'll escape punishment. If you pay, he can have a night's freedom." Terror Some Chinese have been in camps for over 15 years, and their families have had to sell their home and their business... Terror has a firm grip on Indonesian society. Nobody can trust his best friend. To qualify for a job, an Indonesian citizen.must first be able to present a written certificate issued by the army, confirming that he has never had any connection with the PKI, or Indonesian Communist Party, since 1965. This certificate may prove very expensive, not only for those who really did have connections with the Communists but for others, too. In the mid-Javanese town of Semarang, the army practically makes use in public of the wives and daughters of imprisoned or dead Communists as prostitutes, and takes heavy "go-between's" fees in exchange for providing these women with essential identity cards In Djakarta, the Bat troops flap their wings more quietly in the night: "It's wrong to boast of our exploits as many in the interior of the country do," said Major Djoni, who had unobtrusively ensured the "disappearance in town" of 300,000 so-called Communist sympathisers. "How many wore freely taken to Pulau Matt (Death Island) in Djakarta Bay?" "Not many, perhaps 5,600." "And the rest?" " ftAIDIT... victim of Suharto.SUKARNO... "We haven't finished with him yet."