International people’s tribunal on the Indonesian genocide of 1965

On November 12~14, 2015, an international people’s tribunal was held in The Hague, the Netherlands for the crimes against humanity that had occurred in Indonesia in 1965. The year 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Indonesia’s genocide, during which an estimated 500,000 to 3 million people perished. The perpetrators of Indonesia’s genocide included the Indonesian army and several militias directed and trained by the army, while the victims were the members of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) or related civil groups. These groups consisted of farmers, laborers, women, artists, the enthusiastic supporters of Sukarno who was the Indonesian president in 1965, and mostly ethnic Chinese people who were members of a civil council called Baperki ^[1] a Chinese progressive organization. Since 1965, hundreds of thousands of people were imprisoned due to genocide against the members (or suspected members) of the PKI, or fell victim to forced labor at concentration camps including Buru Island in Indonesia. Most prisoners were tortured, and in particular, women (and some men) were exposed to sexual violence. Their homes, offices, schools, and personal properties were all seized. Less than two years after the start of the genocide which was a crime against humanity, General Suharto ousted President Sukarno to take over power and assumed office as the second president of Indonesia in 1968. 

The incident began on September 30, 1965, when middle-ranking soldiers kidnapped and killed six high-ranking generals (and one lieutenant by mistake). This incident is also known as the ‘September 30 Movement’ or the ‘September 30 Coup d’état’. The initial plan of the ‘September 30 Coup d’état’ was to kidnap the six generals and present them to President Sukarno based on the rumors circulating that a military coup was about to take place. At the time, the chairman of the PKI also supported the plan of kidnapping the generals but did not intend to kill them. Except for the chairman, the remaining Communist Party officials and its ordinary members were unaware of the plan. As the chairman was soon killed without ever voicing his opinion, it is still unknown what his role was. The role of General Suharto is also unknown, as he did not report to his superior even after being informed about the impending raid.

None of the perpetrators of Indonesia’s genocide have received punishment thus far. Under General Suharto's dictatorship, which lasted until 1998 after President Sukarno was ousted, aggressive propaganda erupted, accusing the PKI of self-inflicting its own destruction and portraying the victims of genocide as the country’s traitors.  Communists who were active at the time and their descendants continue to live with that stigma. The families of the genocide victims lost their jobs, and their children were denied admission to colleges. Thousands of civil servants and soldiers were accused of having supported Sukarno and were therefore expelled from their posts or fired without receiving pensions.

In 1998, when General Suharto's dictatorship ended, hopes were raised that justice would be served for the perpetrators of the genocide. In its 2012 report, the ‘National Commission on Human Rights Indonesia (hereinafter Komnas HAM)’ concluded that the atrocities committed at the time should be considered as a crime against humanity. This groundbreaking report, which is now published with its summary, is based on the testimony of the 349 witnesses and survivors. However, the Attorney General’s office, where the report was originally submitted to, returned the report citing a technicality and has not taken any further action regarding the genocide. Also, the international community began to display an interest in the tragedy only after the release of Joshua Oppenheimer's film <The Act of Killing> in 2012.

In March 2013, after the release of <The Act of Killing>, those who were exiled from Indonesia, including human rights activists, journalists, researchers, etc. gathered at my house in The Hague. Director Oppenheimer, a member of the Komnas HAM, and Nursyahbani Katjasungkana who was a prominent woman and human rights lawyer, also attended on this occasion. The lawyer Nursyahbani served as a chief prosecutor for the Indonesian “Comfort Women” victims during the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on the Trial of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery in 2000 (hereinafter the ‘Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000’). After hearing from the lawyer Nursyahbani about the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal 2000, the remaining attendants thought that an international people’s tribunal may terminate the domestic and international-level silence on Indonesia’s genocide and facilitate a process to help restore the victims’ dignity  and also prevent its recurrence. The activists as well as those who fled from Indonesia asked the lawyer Nursyahbani to organize an international people’s tribunal for Indonesia’s genocide. We agreed that Indonesia should not allow the voices of the victims and their families to be suppressed or let the Indonesian government avoid criminal responsibility because the state has continuously failed to resolve the crimes against humanity it has been committing since October 1965.

We ran a lateral organization consisting of a general coordinator Nursyahbani, and a secretariat each in Jakarta, Indonesia and The Hague, the Netherlands. The secretariat in The Hague arranged the trial hearings. Several teams led by the organizing committee (OC) members were also formed to prepare for the tribunal. Nursyahbani also led the Jakarta team to seek political support in Indonesia. She held seminars and workshops with human rights activists and victims’ groups, continued to interact with Indonesian prosecutors, and sent invitations to the judges asking them to participate in the tribunal. She also regularly supervised our work in The Hague. In March 2014, the ‘Foundation International People's Tribunal’ was officially established and we managed to raise the funds to just about cover the cost of hosting the tribunal. Many organizations that supported funding knew that the Indonesian government was not going to take this issue lightly, so they made every effort to treat the issue with great sensitivity. For this reason, we agreed that it would be best to open the people’s tribunal in The Hague, which is known as the city of international judicial trials.

A panoramic view of the ‘international people’s tribunal on the Indonesian genocide of 1965’ hosted in The Hague, the Netherlands, 2015 (Photo from: Saskia Wieringa)

Breaking 50 years of silence

We decided to use the phrase ‘breaking 50 years of silence’ as our slogan because the year 2015 - when the tribunal was held - marked the 50th anniversary of the ‘incident in 1965’ which led to the expulsion of President Sukarno as well as the genocide and collapse of the PKI. The ‘Final Report of the Panel of Judges’ was released in July 2016 and was published in English and Indonesian in 2017. The conclusion of the final report, which was written based on the reports submitted by 40 researchers and activists around the globe, is consistent with the analysis of the 2012 Komnas HAM report which is still forbidden to be accessed for viewing.

In particular, the final report features the following notable points: Firstly, the judges ruled that the defectors were deprived of the citizenship they deserved. Among the defectors were Communist Party members, students, and diplomats who were overseas in September 1965 and could not return to Indonesia. The judges argued in the report that "Involuntary or compulsory exile, which is distinct from the actions against humanity, is part of the systematic and broad national assault against a large number of civilians. It is also a form of persecution and is thus a crime against humanity.” It would be appropriate to commence with the relevant discussions regarding this judgment, since an involuntary or compulsory exile is not listed as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, nor is it mentioned in the 2012 Komnas HAM report.

Secondly, the report addressed the incitement and instigation of murder. In particular, it cited that the army created and spread false propaganda claiming that "Communist women danced naked in a field called ‘Lubang Buaya’ to castrate and kill the generals”. The judges concluded that “What is officially known to have happened to the prisoners in Lubang Buaya is completely false. Military officials under General Suharto knew the truth … (omitted) … The continuous propaganda campaign against those suspected of being involved in the PKI was used to justify oppression, detention, and murder against them. It also helped justify the sexual violence and actions against humanity described earlier. The propaganda, which lasted for more than 30 years, denied the citizenship of the survivors and contributed to perpetuating the oppression. Spreading false propaganda to lay the groundwork for violence is an essential factor for carrying out violence. The act of preparing for a crime cannot be discussed separately from the crime itself. The propaganda encouraged actions against humanity, including genocide, and was the beginning and an essential part of the widespread violence.”

Thirdly, prosecutors also filed conspiracy charges against other countries, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. These three countries, similar to Indonesia, were requested to appear at the tribunal and defend themselves, but none of them responded to such a request. The judges concluded that although the level of conspiracy varied, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia were all implicated in the crimes against humanity and were aware of what was going on in Indonesia. According to the indictment, the United States especially knew that the Indonesian army had launched a program to commit genocide and other criminal acts, but spared no support for the Indonesian army in order to justify their alleged conspiracy in committing crimes against humanity”.

Lastly, the people’s tribunal addressed whether or not genocide had taken place. Although the prosecutors did not include genocide charges in the indictment, the research report suggested the arguments supporting the genocide charges. There were two main reasons why the genocide charges were excluded in the indictment. To begin with, some people objected to applying the term ‘genocide’ to the groups that did not belong to the "national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups" specifically mentioned in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Following on from that, including the genocide charges in the indictment would have exacerbated the challenges faced by the prosecutors, as they were already facing severe criticism for dealing with extremely sensitive issues.  

The people’s tribunal demonstrated its moral and political influence. It also contributed to the production of an archive carrying the truth. The ‘archive of the perpetrators’, which had previously been dominant in Indonesian politics, could now be replaced or supplemented by the ‘archive of the victims’. The world finally began to hear the voices of the survivors. Although justice was not served for the perpetrators and no reparation or compensation ensued, the tribunal allowed the victims and their families to gain substantial strength. Above all, the tribunal was successful as it broke the silence surrounding the genocide and other crimes against humanity to contribute to building an atmosphere which insisted that such crimes should never be forgotten.

Nursyahbani, general coordinator, is declaring a session for the international people’s tribunal. (Photo from: Saskia Wieringa)