Indonesia 1954‑1966

In October 1965, the Indonesian army commanded by Suharto triggered a far-flung operation of repression against the Communist Party of Indonesia and the organizations linked to it. In March 1966 Suharto would be vested with emergency powers and he would become president in 1967. The number of victims of the 1965‑1966 massacres may be estimated as more than 500 000 dead. At the present epoch, in the name of memory, it is in good moral taste to point up “repentance”, which is a way like another precisely to kill memory, to make peace with the assassins while living off the cadavers, or for reasons which have nothing to do with moral, to judge such or such. From this angle of view, the case of Indonesia is remarkable, since the massacre is generally evacuated from memory. The victims, in effect, in a large number were communists.

Here we partly reproduce a dossier about the history of the Communist Party of Indonesia, in relation with the coup d'etat of 1965, published by the CEMOPI.

Bulletin international
New series n° 16‑17 (98‑99), July 2001
New series n° 18‑19 (100‑101) - third and fourth trimester 2001
published by the CEMOPI
(Centre d'étude sur le mouvement ouvrier et paysan international -
Center for study about the international workers and peasants movement),
France

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