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Prodita Sabarini
Griffith Review 49: New Asia Now
Interview

Prodita Sabarini

“It’s not only Indonesia that hasn’t dealt with this history; the international community also has yet to deal with their connivance in Indonesia’s 1965 massacre.”

By Catherine Putz

Fifty years ago, six Indonesian generals were assassinated in an abortive coup by left-wing junior army officers. One of the most senior remaining army generals, Suharto, seized the moment and blamed Indonesia's Communist Party (PKI), at that point the largest non-ruling communist party in the world with between two and three million members. The violent purge that Suharto unleashed ranks among the worst instances of mass murder in the 20th century. In the 2012 documentary, The Act of Killing, it is estimated that between one and three million people were killed. Suharto, who became president two years later and ruled until he was overthrown in 1998, remains a fixture in Indonesian history textbooks while the anti-community purge is largely absent.

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The Authors

Catherine Putz is the special projects editor at The Diplomat.
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