Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia

375 Pages·2020·3.113 MB·English

by  John Roosa

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Buried Histories
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Crit ic al Human Rights
Se ries Ed i tors
Scott Straus  Tyrell Haberkorn
Steve J. Stern, Editor Emeritus
Books in the ser ies Crit i cal Human Rights em pha size re search that opens
new ways to think about and unders tand human r ights. The ser ies valu es
in par tic u lar em pir i cally grounded and in tel lec tu ally open re search that
es chews sim plified ac counts of human rights events and pro cesses.
Across the Indonesian archipelago during the long months of 1965–66,
supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) were hunted down,
arrested, detained, tortured, and killed. For decades, the killings were shrouded
in silence. In Buried Histories, John Roosa combines oral history and fine-
grained archival research to elucidate how the killings were systematic and
planned from the top of the military dictatorship. Careful attention to the
subjectivity of both perpetrators and victims illuminates both the series of
social and political transformations that led to mass violence in Indonesia
during the Cold War and the difficulty of redressing it decades later.
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 Buried Histories
The Anticommunist Massacres
of 1965–1966 in Indonesia
John Roosa
The University of Wisconsin Press
UWP: Roosa: Buried Histories pageiv
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Copyright © 2020
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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This book may be available in a digital edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roosa, John, author.
Title: Buried histories: the anticommunist massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia / John Roosa.
Other titles: Critical human rights.
Description: Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, [2020]
| Series: Critical human rights | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041277 | ISBN 9780299327309 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Political atrocities—Indonesia. | Targeted killing—Indonesia. | Death squads—
Indonesia. | Anti-communist movements—Indonesia. | Indonesia—History—Coup d’état, 1965.
Classification: LCC DS644.32 .R655 2020 | DDC 959.803/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041277
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For Ayu
for blessing many wounded springtimes
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 3
1 Unarmed Fortresses: The Army and
the PKI’s Rival Struggles for Hegemony
during Guided Democracy 28
2 Mental Operations: The Army’s Propaganda
after October 1, 1965 57
3 Tortured Words: Interrogations and
the Production of Truth 85
4 Surprise Attacks: The Destruction of the PKI
in Surakarta 116
5 Vanishing Points: Disappearances in Bali 147
6 Invisible Worlds: The Kapal Massacre in Bali 179
7 Dead Labor: Disappearances in Sumatra 209
Conclusions 241
Afterlives 254
Notes 267
Bibliography 319
Index 341
vii
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Illustrations
Maps
Provinces and regional army commands of Indonesia
in 1965 2
Surakarta and its environs in 1965 121
Bali in 1965 153
Sumatra in 1965 222
Figures
Still image from The Look of Silence (2014) showing
the grave of Ramli 13
“Separation,” a painting by Misbach Tamrin, 2007 19
Sukarno and Aidit at Senayan Stadium, Jakarta,
May 23, 1965 29
Sukarno, ca. 1946 37
D. N. Aidit, June 1963 44
Suharto being sworn in as army commander,
October 16, 1965 58
The mob attack on Res Publica University, Jakarta,
October 12, 1965 66
Front page of the army’s newspaper, Berita Yudha,
November 19, 1965 72
The graves of eleven PKI leaders at Ngalihan, Central
Java, ca. 1960 82
ix
one line short