At an unprecedented meeting held yesterday and assembled the victims of the 1965 atrocities, and senior Indonesian officials, Indonesia opened discussions on the massacre of 500,000 communists and their supporters.
"Let's open this story together so we can all know what was wrong in our national system, why this nation could have the capacity to commit massacres," said the conference organizer Agus Widjojo in a statement, as reported by Indonesia BBC .
the massacre began in 1965, when a coup was blamed on the communists. tensions between the army and the Communist Party came to a head when six generals were killed by soldiers who were allegedly sympathetic to the Communists.
What followed was one of the worst massacres of 20 e century. suspected communists and sympathizers were tortured and killed, many others were arrested and imprisoned without trial. About half a million people were killed and one has all been tried for these crimes against humanity.
Today, the descendants of the Communist Party members are still discriminated against because they are prohibited from taking government jobs. Outside Jakarta Hotel where the conference was held, the anti-communist protesters took part in demonstrations, as they feared the revival of communism in the country.
Through this conference, the government plans to make peace with its tragic past, although security minister Luhut Panjaitan said there would be no apology published.