“They probably
killed a lot of people, and I probably have a
lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not
all bad. Here is a time when you have to strike
hard at a decisive moment”.
Suharto the killer!
Shame upon those western leaders and the media
that began to hint the fact that Suharto was a
dictator and killer only when his position became
untenable, with his people in open revolt. The
west not only backed Suharto throughout the 32
years of his ignominious regime of repression
and bloodbath that he launched in 1965 to wipe
out Communists. He annihilated not only communists,
but also other political rivals. Yes, His was
a democratic genocide!
Just for an example we reproduce here an article
by Kathy Kadane describing how the CIA supplied
Suharto with death lists.
CIA supplied Suharto with death lists.
The US Govt played a significant role in one
of the worst massacres of the century by supplying
the names of thousands of communist party leaders
to the Indonesian army, which hunted down the
leftists and killed them, former US diplomats
say. For the first time US officials acknowledge
that in 1965 they systematically compiled comprehensive
lists of communist operatives, from top echelons
down to village cadres. As many as five thousand
names were furnished to the Indonesian army, and
the Americans later checked off the names of those
who had been killed or captured, according to
the US officials.
The Killings were part of a massive bloodletting
that took an estimated 2, 50,000 lives (Tally
of the massacre varies from author to author and
from observer to observer. Many believe that a
total of 5.5 lakhs were killed in the spree- Editor-
www.thanalonline.com).
The purge of the Partai Kommunis Indonesia (PKI-
Indonesian Communist Party- editor) was part of
a US drive to ensure that communists ddid not
come to power in the largest country in S. E.
Asia where the United States was fighting an undeclared
war in Vietnam.
Silent for a quarter of a century, former senior
US diplomats and CIA officers declared in lengthy
interviews how they aided former Indonesian President
Suharto , then army leader, in the attacks on
the PKI.
A BIG HELP TO THE ARMY
‘It really was a big help to the army’,
said Robert J Martens , a former member of the
United States Embassy’s political section
who is now a consultant to the state department.
“They probably killed a lot of people, and
I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but
that’s not all bad. Here is a time when
you have to strike hard at a decisive moment”.
Martens, an experienced analyst of communist affairs,
headed an embassy group of State Department and
CIA offices that spent two years compiling lists.
He later delivered them to an army intermediary.
People named in the lists were captured in overwhelming
numbers, Martens said, adding, ‘It’s
a big part of the reason the PKI has never come
back’.
In 1968, the Washington Post published an estimate
that 500,000 were killed in the purge and the
brief civil war it triggered. In a 1968 report,
the CIA estimated there had been 250,000 deaths,
and called the carnage ‘one of the worst
murders of the 20th century’.
The lists were a detailed who’s who of
the leadership of the party of 3 million members,
and leaders of the ‘mass organizations’
such as the PKI national labour federation, women’s
and youth groups.
‘I know we had a lot of information’
about the PKI, than the Indonesians (sic) themselves’,
the former Ambassador Marshall Green said. Martens
told me’ on a number of occasions…..
That the govt did not have very good information
on the communist set-up, and he gave me the impression
that this information was superior to anything
they had’.
The lists were turned over piecemeal, Martens
said, beginning at the top of the Communist Organization.
Martens supplied thousands of names to an Indonesian
emissary over a number of months, he said. The
emissary was an aide to Adam Malik, an Indonesian
Minister who was an ally of Suharto in the attack
on the communists.
Interviewed in Jakarta, the aide, Tirta Kentjana(‘Kim”)
Adhyatman, confirmed he had met with Martens and
received lists of thousands of names, which he
in turn gave to Adam Malik. Malik passed them
on to Suharto’s Head Quarters, he said.
Embassy officials carefully recorded the subsequent
destruction of the PKI organization. Using Martens
lists as a guide, they checked off the names of
the captured and assassinated PKI leaders , tracking
the steady dismantling of the party apparatus,
former US officials said.
Information about who had been captured and killed
came from Suharto’s Head Quarters, according
to Joseph Lazarsky , deputy CIA station chief
in Jakarta in 1965. Suharto’s Jakarta Hq
was the central collection point for military
reports from around the country detailing the
capture and killing of PKI leaders, Lazarsky said.
“We were getting a good account in Jakarta
of who was being picked up”, Lazarsky said.
“ The army had a shooting list’ of
about 4000 or 5000 people.
Detention centres were set up to hold those who
were not killed immediately. ‘ They did
n’t have enough goon squads to zap them
all, and some individuals were valuable for interrogation’,
Lazarsky said. ‘ The infrastructure was
zapped almost immediately. We knew what they were
doing. We knew they would keep a few and save
them fro Kangaroo courts, but Suharto and his
advisors said, “ if you keep them alive,
you have to feed them”.
Kathy Kadane is a former investigator with the
foreign affairs committee in the US Congress.
Post Script:- The recent
attacks in Delhi and Poona on the Communist party
offices and the attacks on the person of the communist
cadre successively organized by Fascist goons
in different parts of the country, including Kannur,
Palakkad, Thrissur and other places in Kerala,
and the array of incidents arising out from Nandigram
give us a hint that the international anti-communist
junta has decided upon annihilating the communist
party of India( Marxist). Beware, lest the dog
should bite. PKI was annihilated when it was rendering
support to Dr. Sukarno Regime. It must speak volumes
to the communist leaders of India. After the Chinese
Party the CPI (M) is the largest Communist movement
in the world.
Editor.
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