Powerhouse countries like the US, the UK and Australia
were directly involved with the Indonesian government in the 1965 communist
purge, the International People's Tribunal on the 1965 Crimes Against Humanity
said in its final report released on Wednesday.
"The United States of America, the United Kingdom
and Australia were all complicit to different degrees in the commission of
these crimes against humanity," said presiding judge Zak Yakoob on
Wednesday in a video presentation of the final report from the tribunal, which
was held last year in The Hague from Nov. 10 to 13.
The US had supplied lists of names of Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) officials to the Indonesian Military despite an existing
"strong presumption that these would facilitate the arrest and/or the
execution of those that were named", Yakoob said as evidence in justifying
the charge of complicity.
Meanwhile, the UK and Australia conducted a
"sustained campaign repeating false propaganda from the Indonesian
Army", he added.
The UK and Australian governments had continued with the
policy even after it had become abundantly clear that killings and other crimes
against humanity were taking place on a mass and indiscriminate basis.
"The governments of the countries referred to above
were fully aware of what was taking place in Indonesia through their diplomatic
reports, from contacts in the field and accounts in the Western media,"
said the judge in reference to all three countries involved.
By the beginning of 1966, Yakoob said, the number of
killings that were reliably reported to Washington, London and Canberra ranged
from a minimum of 100,000 to four times that count.
IPT 1965 coordinator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said the
verdict is not legally binding since it is not a criminal court. However, it
serves as a political action aimed at making the Indonesian government
accountable for the crimes against humanity believed to have left at least
500,000 people dead.
By Liza Yosephine The Jakarta
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