In 1965, in highly controversial and confusing circumstances involving a purported military coup, Sukarno, known for his support of Indonesian nationalism and independence was displaced by Suharto, an army general with strong anti communist views. Suharto originally served in the Japanese occupation forces supported police force, later he entered the the Peta (Defenders of the Fatherland) and went on to train in the Japanese led Indonesian armed forces of the occupation period. In the post war period it is believed he fell under US influence and patronage and with their backing he and his supporters rose in stature and influence.
The coup In September 1965 six army generals were murdered in an apparent coup attempt. The kidnappings and subsequent murders occurred in highly suspicious circumstances and the somewhat confusing official accounts have been found to be highly suspect. A group of senior officers including the army commander Lieutenant General Ahmad Yani had apparently been increasingly at odds with an alliance of right wing officers including Suharto. The murdered officers were supportive of Sukarno and accommodating of the Presidents relationship with the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). Subandrio, Sukarno's foreign minister, second deputy prime minister and chief of intelligence, from 1960 to 1966 had infiltrated agents into a secret meeting of rightwing generals plotting the overthrow of Sukarno. It is believed he may have precipitated the uprising by releasing information about this but the details remain uncertain. The uprising was reported amongst units in central Java, air force units at Halim air force base and armed forces units that occupied Merdeka Square, a strategic section of the capital. The so called "30th September group" leaders claimed the forces present in Merdeka Square were to protect the Presidency from a planned uprising soon to be orchestrated by a group of generals backed by the US CIA. General Suharto then reportedly subsequently quelled this action within the armed forces in a single day. The right wing officers who subsequently rose to power condemned the killings of the senior army officers and claimed the uprising involving the military units was the work of communists. As more documentation emerges from western archives it appears ever more apparent that the event was stage managed to allow Suharto an opportunity to subsequently to claim the leadership. In the early stages Suharto blamed the murders on a group of PKI inspired youths, women and "elements of the Air Force".
The purges The murders were later to be blamed upon the PKI, communists and the September 30th movement, ironically the same group that had claimed to have come together in an attempt to thwart a right wing coup d'état. Suharto initially claimed to support President Sukarno but then seized power himself, sidelining Sukarno, proclaiming a New Order (Orde Baru). A series of bloody anti-Communist purges was then initiated leading to the death of 500,000-2,000,000 people (estimates vary widely). The Western governments turned a blind eye to the massacres and they remained substantially unreported in the West for a considerable time. Many historians have since shed light on the involvement of the US intelligence services and to a lesser degree their mutual contacts in British, German and Japanese intelligence in the circumstances leading up to the seizure of power by Suharto and the subsequent murderous purges.
When the information concerning the widspread killings was eventually released it was shrouded in mystery. The US intelligence agencies and the CIA were later found to be complicit in supplying names and addresses of the PKI members to the Indonesian army, Suharto operatives and CIA-funded Muslim death squads, who hunted the leftists down and murdered them. Declassified US files have since shown that the US government was giving covert aid to Suharto and the death squads to conduct the widespread purges across Indonesia. Following Suharto's rise to power US interests in the region were secured and their influence over the RI and the nation's resourses continued into the new century.
Under Suharto from 1966 to 1997, Indonesia enjoyed stability and economic growth, but most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of a small corrupt elite and dissent was brutally crushed. During the Asian economic crisis of 1997 the value of the Indonesian rupiah plummeted, halving the purchasing power of ordinary Indonesians. In the ensuing violent upheaval, now known as Reformasi, Suharto was brought down and a more democratic regime installed.
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Indonesia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
