US knew communists were framed for 1965 Indonesian ‘coup’

Washington was well-informed of the 1965-66 slaughter of Indonesian communists and sympathisers.

Suharto, pictured in 1965, rode the crackdown to power in Indonesia.

Declassified diplomatic cables have revealed Washington was well-informed of the 1965-66 slaughter of 500,000 Indonesian communists and sympathisers.

The cables show Washingon knew the military’s rationale for the crackdown — an attempted Beijing-backed, communist coup — was “manufactured to serve the propaganda needs of the time”.

The chilling documents chart the aftermath of an attempted purge of generals by a group of junior officers backed by a handful of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) leaders.

The crackdown that followed the alleged coup saw the killings between October 1965 and March 1966 of an estimated half a million PKI leaders, cadre and suspected supporters, and the jailing of one million more.

The files from the US embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were released this week after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration.

The operation conducted with the support of Indonesian Muslim groups at the height of the Cold War — and the backing of western governments seeking to stem communist expansion — saw the removal of president Sukarno and the rise of general Suharto who ruled Indonesia for 32 years.

While Washington remained largely silent over the massacre the 39 documents reveal the US embassy had a clear understanding of what was happening and who was responsible.

Cables sent from the embassy in late 1965 describe reports of “PKI being slaughtered”, of groups of prisoners being “delivered” nightly to civilian kill squads, of indiscriminate killings and Muslim youth groups targeting Chinese civilians.

One cites a “Reliable Australian journalist”, the first to reach central Java which was the scene of some of the worst massacres, saying PKI cadres he spoke to knew nothing of the September 30 coup — indicating US officials were aware communists arrested or killed were innocent.

A December report noted at least 100,000 people had been killed in the army-organised campaign. Another, dated December 17, 1965, from US first secretary Mary Vance Trent included a list of PKI leadership bodies as well as a “fragmentary compilation of the present whereabouts of PKI leaders” — adding weight to claims US officials provided the Indonesian military with target lists.

Melbourne University Indonesian law professor Tim Lindsey said yesterday the release confirmed scholars’ belief the US embassy was aware of what was going on, and dealing closely with Indonesian government forces working against the left at the time.

“There is no doubt the embassy and US had been in contact with anti-Communist elements in government … and probably did supply intelligence,” he said.

One cable from the embassy’s then political affairs officer linked Suharto with the mass killings of PKI supporters by Indonesia’s biggest mainstream Muslim organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama, its youth wing Ansor, and Muhammadiyah. It also discussed how those groups were solving the “problem” of how to house and feed prisoners “by executing their PKI prisoners, or killing them before they are captured”.

The mass killings remain a taboo subject in Indonesia where the military has recently attempted to stoke baseless fears of a communist revival.

But Nadhlatul Ulama general secretary Yahya Staquf Cholil said yesterday he believed Indonesians were “ready to see the truth”.

“Whatever mistakes people made at the time, including those from NU and Ansor, we have to admit it, and then apologise properly,” he said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said “every country has its own dark history, including Indonesia” but the country was forging ahead with national reconciliation efforts.

A symposium last year on 1965-66 sparked a backlash, and last month President Joko Widodo vowed to “crush” any attempt to revive communism.

Survivor Bejo Untung said the cables were “a good step in the right direction to uncover the truth about 1965”. “The question now is how committed is Jokowi’s government towards this cause?” Mr Bejo said. “Is Jokowi brave enough to disclose Indonesia’s own documents on 1965?”