The Massacres of 1965–1966: New Interpretations and the Current Debate in Indonesia

Abstract

The mass violence which spread across Indonesia following an attempt-ed coup on 1 October 1965 claimed the lives of half a million people and irrevocably changed the lives of millions more. Despite an up-surge in attention from researchers and community-based activists over the last fifteen years, these events, known collectively as the “Indonesian killings” or the “Indonesian massacres” of the mid-1960s, have remained a murky part of Indonesian history.