Ria Apriyani, Cianjur – Police have shut down a meeting by victims of the mass killings in 1965-66 that was to be held in Cipanas, Bogor, West Java on the grounds that members of the Pancasila Youth (PP) and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) planned to descend on the meeting.
The participants attempted to negotiate with police so that the event could go ahead asking police to arrange a meeting with the leaders of the two groups so they could explain the event.
The owner of the villa where the event was to be held requested that Cianjur police provide security guarantees if the meeting went ahead. [Failing this] the owner pushed to have the event cancelled because they were afraid of a brawl breaking out and that they would be accused of protecting communists and villa won’t be able to be rented out anymore.
Ujang, one of the members of the social organisations threatening the event said that they had been aware of the meeting since last week. According to Ujang, the aim of the event was to reawaken communist ideas. “This event is a gathering of people who want to reawaken communism in Indonesia”, Ujung told KBR on Thursday April 14.
In the end the victims of 1965-66 decided to give in and left the villa for a new location to hold the meeting.
According to the participants, the meeting was organised as part of preparations to take part in a government sponsored national symposium on the 1965-66 mass killings. The meeting, which has the backing of Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar, will present victims and perpetrators and will be held in Jakarta on April 18-19.
Despite being given an explanation, the grouping of social organisations totalling around 40 or so people insisted that the event be closed down.
[Abridged translation by James Balowski for the Indoleft news service. The second part of the article covered the national symposium in Jakarta. The original title of the report was Kepolisian Bubarkan Pertemuan Korban 65/66 di Cipanas.]
