International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)

In the early morning hours of October 1, 1965, six generals of the Indonesian army were kidnapped and executed by a group calling itself the September 30th Movement . Claiming as its goal a pre-emptive attack on a planned coup d’etat, the September 30th Movement soon evaporated, its members driven out by a decisive counter-attack led by Maj. Gen. Suharto. The actions of the short-lived Movement served Suharto as a convenient pretext for one of the worst bloodbaths of the 20th century: the arrests and killings of hundreds of thousands allegedly affiliated with the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Riding the crest of the violence, Suharto used the event as an excuse to expand his powers and eventually to attain the presidency. Throughout his 30-year reign, Suharto would repeatedly invoke the specter of the Movement in an anti-Communist campaign out of all proportion to its ostensible cause. The ultimate result: a loss of civil rights for all Indonesians.

Quashed within days, the September 30th Movement became enshrouded in uncertainty. Who masterminded the event? What did they hope to achieve by it? Why did they fail so miserably? In Pretext for Mass Murder John Roosa draws on new primary source material—a little- known document written by a key figure in the Movement, oral interviews with rank-and-file participants and former high-level PKI leaders, internal PKI documents, recently published memoirs, and declassified documents of the U.S. government—to suggest a possible solution to the mystery behind the enabling myth of Suharto’s repressive regime.