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    Declassified Files Lay Bare U.S. Knowledge Of Mass Murders In Indonesia

    The Indonesian military systematically killed at least half a million people in the 1960s. Documents released Tuesday show U.S. officials knew about it from the start — and stood by as it unfolded.
    by Colin Dwyer Oct 18, 2017 5 minutes
    Two men rest on a beach in Bali, Indonesia, where human bones were found in the 1990s. More bones have been recovered there since then, which villagers have reburied. The site is believed to be one of the mass graves for victims of the anti-communist atrocities.

    By the end of November 1965, U.S. officials were well aware that mass murders were underway. At this point, roughly two months into an Indonesian military campaign that would ultimately kill at least half a million people, U.S. Embassy staff privately expressed no shock in reporting that thousands had already been summarily executed.

    They did comment on the resourcefulness of the killers, though.

    The "main problem" with the military effort to repress the Indonesian Communist Party, or PKI, was "what to feed and where to house the prisoners," the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta noted in a dated Nov. 30. "Many provinces appear to be successfully meeting this problem by executing their PKI prisoners, or by killing them before they are captured, a task in which Moslem youth groups are providing assistance."

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