Unmarked Graves

There are many episodes in Indonesian history that are in dire need of rewriting and the anti-communist violence of 1965-1966 is one of these.The violence that killed half a million people, stigmatized and discriminated against former members and sympathizers of the PKI (Partai Kommunis Indonesia, Indonesian Communist Party) was taboo during Suharto's army-led regime.The advent of democracy since the fall of the New Order in 1998 ushered in a new era for the tackling of historical injustices and human rights violations concerning the anti-communist violence.Hopes that the mass killings of alleged Leftists in 1965-1966 would be addressed reached their climax when Joko Widodo promised to address human rights issues in his first bid for presidency in 2014.Five years later, at the start of his second presidential term, these hopes have vanished and the task of uncovering lost histories, achieving historical justice, accountability, and rehabilitation falls once again onto victims, activists, artists, and academics.Vanessa Hearman is one such academic working to fill in the gaps of our knowledge about the anti-communist violence of 1965-1966.Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia is an immensely valuable contribution in writing histories about the anti-communist violence of 1965-1966, focusing on East Java.Taking advantage of the space the democratic era has given to survivors to speak about their experiences, as well as people in the communities in which these events took place, the book relies on first-hand interviews collected from people on different sides of the political divide in East Java, and other primary sources, as well as documents and newspaper reports.To contextualize what occurred during the mass killings, the book examines the emergence of the Left, members of the PKI or people associated with it, through the various mass organizations in Indonesia in Chapter 1.The next chapter discusses major historical events in Indonesia and at the provincial level that were crucial in the lead up to the violence.It describes the Madiun Affair of 1948, the period of Guided Democracy (1958)(1959)(1960)(1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965), as well as the 1964-1965 land occupations in East Java which led to tension and violent clashes.Chapter 3 examines how events at the national level impacted the Left in East Java.The involvement of a small group of PKI leaders in the Thirtieth of September Movement proved to be fatal for the Left, with the discussion focusing on the devastating last three months of 1965 in East Java.In Chapter 4 the narrative starts looking at the Left's responses to the purges.Some tried to pre

Communism · Democracy · Human rights · Indonesian · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Studies and History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies