1965 - 1966

Editor’s note: For Indonesia-watchers the activities of the military and its leaders remain largely opaque and perhaps even menacing. In recent years the steady stream of memoirs and biographies by and about military leaders has, in some cases, assuaged some of this mystery and in others, added to the intrigue. As the public and judicial gaze has increasingly turned to the actions of military leaders with connections to the New Order, the memoir has been engaged by some as a form of testimony in an effort to ‘clear their name’. Whatever the motivation, with each new addition to this genre, we are offered new insights into the fractious and often treacherous ‘interior’ world of the Indonesian Armed Forces. Suparman holds the line but reveals some new insights into the transition of power after the fall of the New Order

Recent ground-breaking publications, an internationally award-winning film and a major conference are opening up new truths about Indonesia’s past

Jusuf Wanandi’s memoir allows glimpses into the mindset of Suharto-era officialdom

Joshua Oppenheimer’s groundbreaking new film raises disturbing questions about why perpetrators of the 1965-66 mass killings still enjoy impunity for their actions

The filmmaker explains that The Act of Killing exposes the imagination of terror

Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing is a bold, disturbing and ultimately unsatisfactory exploration of the place of violence in modern Indonesia

In 2012 significant new information exposed critical truths about the 1965 massacres in Indonesia, but there remain major obstacles to recovery and reconciliation

A culture that suppresses conflict disguises decades-long tensions in Balinese communities

Abdurrahman Wahid’s life deserves serious and critical reflection

Recent book bannings mark a return to the repressive practices of the New Order

The tumultuous events of 1965 thwarted Liong Tjie Tjong’s writing aspirations

Two villagers from the rural fringe of Surabaya recall the most frightening night of their lives

Even now, Indonesians find it difficult to face the traumatic events of the past

When Nahdlatul Ulama members killed communists, they believed they were doing it for God

Many of those accused of being communists fled to South Blitar after the Surabaya crackdown, only to become the target of the Trisula Operation in 1968

The exhumation of mass graves from 1965-66 is a fraught and dangerous business

This mini-encyclopedia explains some of the key terms pertaining to the events of 1965-66

The mass killings of 1965-66 in Indonesia were international, not just local, events - and the US played an important role

Forty-five years later, survivors are telling their stories about their suffering in detention