{"id":27064,"date":"2016-04-28T06:48:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T04:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/27064-opinion-unearthing-indonesias-1965-66-massacre-victims.html"},"modified":"2016-04-28T06:48:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T04:48:31","slug":"opinion-unearthing-indonesias-1965-66-massacre-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/27064-opinion-unearthing-indonesias-1965-66-massacre-victims.html","title":{"rendered":"Opinion : Unearthing Indonesia\u2019s 1965-66 Massacre Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"


Indonesia\u2019s President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo wants to know where the bodies are buried.<\/p>\n

Literally.<\/p>\n

On April 25, Jokowi instructed his security minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, to start documenting the location of mass graves of the estimated more than 500,000 victims of the 1965-66 \u201canti-communist\u201d massacres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jokowi\u2019s order is an act of political courage toward accountability<\/a> that defies a half-century of official lies and denial<\/a>. Establishing the location of those mass graves is a first step toward identifying the victims buried within and the circumstances of their deaths.<\/p>\n

This poses a threat to an official narrative<\/a> that has long silenced survivors and family members of the victims. In the government\u2019s account, the killings are a justified and heroic response to an Indonesian Communist Party plot to overthrow the government, which began with the murder of six army generals on September 30, 1965.<\/p>\n

There are powerful elements<\/a> within the government and the security forces who would prefer that the details of those victims and their killers \u2013 state security forces and paramilitary groups under their control \u2013 remain buried and unaccounted for. Luhut, who has already challenged the enormity of the massacres by stating<\/a> that the death toll was \u201cprobably less\u201d than 1,000 victims and ruled out the possibility of an official apology<\/a> for those abuses, has expressed skepticism about the existence of already well-documented<\/a> mass grave sites. Powerful religious groups are also opposed to accountability for 1965-66 killings. The Indonesian Council of Ulama, the country\u2019s highest Islamic clerical body, has cautioned<\/a> that locating and excavating mass grave sites would be a socially and politically divisive policy, \u201ctantamount to awakening the sleeping tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elements of the government, security forces, and religious bodies have \u2013 without basis \u2013 equated moves toward justice for the victims and their family members as an effort<\/a> \u201cto revive communism.\u201d A lack of support by senior ministers and the government bureaucracy could foil Jokowi\u2019s plan for mass grave documentation, as it did his policy<\/a> to allow foreign journalists unrestricted access to the restive region of Papua. The success of Jokowi\u2019s efforts to start the process of redress for the 1965-66 crimes demands both domestic and international recognition of the challenges he faces and vocal support to help him overcome them. The victims of 1965-66 deserve nothing less.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indonesia\u2019s President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo wants to know where the bodies are buried. Literally. On April 25, Jokowi instructed his security minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, to start documenting the location of mass graves of the estimated more than 500,000 victims of the 1965-66 \u201canti-communist\u201d massacres. Jokowi\u2019s order is an act of political courage toward accountability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2275],"class_list":["post-27064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","ji_location-indonesia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion : Unearthing Indonesia\u2019s 1965-66 Massacre Victims - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/27064-opinion-unearthing-indonesias-1965-66-massacre-victims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion : Unearthing Indonesia\u2019s 1965-66 Massacre Victims\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Indonesia\u2019s President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo wants to know where the bodies are buried. 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