JAKARTA — April 15 marked the first anniversary of the establishment of an extraordinary organisation, the Indonesian Institute for the Study of 1965-1966 Massacre (YPKP).
Its chairperson is Sulami, who was second secretary-general of Gerwani (the Indonesian Women's Movement) when the dreadful repression began on October 1, 1965. She spent 20 years in prison, 13 in solitary confinement, without even specific charges being made against her, let alone a conviction. Among the co-founders is the noted writer and former political prisoner Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
Burning with a desire to expose the crimes committed against themselves and millions of other Indonesians, Sulami and many former political prisoners ("ex-tapols") have decided that the years of enforced silence and discrimination must be broken. They have begun a concerted effort to document the killings, disappearances, tortures, rapes, inhuman and unjustified imprisonments, sackings, seizures and destruction of property that took place in 1965-66, and the years of discrimination and harassment that followed, even up to this day.
Forty ex-tapols gathered outside Jakarta from April 5-15 for a 10-day research training workshop. They were joined by a number of their children and even grandchildren, as well as others who wish to support their project.
In the past year, the YPKP has begun its work in many different provinces, gathering the names of those who were killed, disappeared, jailed or otherwise harmed. The workshop was to increase their expertise in various research techniques — interviewing, analysis of fact and opinion, image and sound recording, establishment of databases, preservation of evidence, location of graves and forensic examination of human remains. Several speakers also gave historical and legal talks to place the work of the YPKP in context.
A particular edge to the discussion came from Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid's recent, and controversial, proposal to annul the 1966 decree banning the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and all teachings and writings of communism, Marxism and Leninism. Clearly such a ban runs completely contrary to any principle of democracy and its annulment would help break the repressive structure of Suharto's New Order — which is precisely why many people and organisations have supported it.
The proposal has angered more hostile and threatening elements, however. On the eve of the workshop a demonstration was held outside the parliament building by militant Muslim youth, who burned the PKI flag and announced their intention to go into battle to prevent a proposal they believed to be tantamount to the party's reestablishment.
The workshop itself had to be moved from its planned and announced location, due to intimidation of the owners of the site. One local official even stated that he personally would kill one by one any former PKI members who attended.
One of the speakers at the workshop was Asmara Nababan, a member of the government's National Human Rights Commission. He encouraged former political prisoners to assert their rights and asked that the Commission be informed of violations, such as local authorities continuing to affix the ex-tapol code to identity cards or illegally requesting permits to carry out inquiries and research into human rights violations.
He even urged people to carry copies of Law No.39/1999 on Human Rights with them, to show to any local official hindering their work or continuing to harass and intimidate them.
The National Human Rights Commission has undertaken some important investigations, such as in Aceh where it has exhumed the bodies of massacre victims and is now trying several military officers for war crimes.
But the Commission has not yet categorised the 1965-66 massacres to be an "event" worthy of its concern and several of its members have also argued that, if a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is established, it should begin its investigations at 1967, excluding the anti-PKI massacres.
But YPKP is determined that 1965-66 should be thoroughly investigated. Most of those at the workshop have experienced first-hand all kinds of human rights abuses. Only one of those present had ever been formally charged, tried and convicted for their offences. Most were not even members of the PKI, but belonged to a trade union, professional association, women's or youth group that was deemed suspect. Some were only high school students or peasant youth in 1965, many had been teachers.
Yet they had all spent years in jail, some over 10 years on the horrific prison island of Buru, where they watched many of their fellow prisoners die of starvation, illness and torture. The 12,000 prisoners exiled there not only had to build roads and barracks with their bare hands, but when their vegetable gardens and corn fields gave a yield, much of it was taken to feed the 3,000 guards and soldiers or sometimes seized and sold for the soldiers' private gain.
Those who survived these horrors now wish to reclaim their lives, no longer as second-class citizens but as full participants in building a new and democratic Indonesia. That cannot take place without telling the truth about what happened in 1965-66, the foundation years of Suharto's New Order regime. Their courage and strength, and the support of their families, is one of the most inspiring features of today's Indonesia.
BY HELEN JARVIS