Volume 24, Number 19 · November 24, 1977
In Indonesian Prisons
By David Hinkley, Huang Wen-hsien
Amnesty International estimates that there are at least 55,000 political prisoners in Indonesia and that in fact a more accurate total is probably 100,000. They were arrested after the attempted coup in 1965, when a number of middle-ranking army officers tried to destroy the leadership of the Indonesian army and assassinated six senior army generals. The coup attempt was swiftly crushed by surviving army leaders, who charged that the Indonesian Communist Party had been involved. Widespread arrests followed. More than half a million people were killed, and at least 750,000 imprisoned. Although hundreds of thousands of people have been released since 1965, many of these were subsequently rearrested and fresh arrests continue. Furthermore, the total number of untried political prisoners has not changed significantly in the last four years.
Feature, 2287 words
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