100,000 Killed In Indonesia’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 9

100,000 Killed In Indonesia’

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, January 13. More than 100,000 Communists and their sympathisers had been killed in Indonesia in the last three months, the “New York Times” reported today.

“Such a blood bath, largely unnoticed by the outside world, would in that case account for more deaths than the last five years of the Vietnam war,” the newspaper said, quoting British sources in London. Some British experts believed the total killed might be as high as 150,000. The slayings were attributed to vigilante groups, composed mostly of Moslems, who are reported to have been hunting for Communists since the abortive coup on October 1. The “New York Times” said informed analysts believed that almost all the Communist Party’s leaders in Indonesia had been killed or captured. The party once had a reported membership of three million, but the figure was now said to be about 150,000.

The newspaper reported that the military was said to

have large areas of Sumatra and the Celebes under almost complete control. However, in Djakarta and other areas of Java, the military had not pressed for complete direction of the Government. Meanwhile hundreds of university students have demonstrated in Djakarta streets against rising prices for the third successive day. They stuck posters and scrawled slogans on private cars.

The Djakarta military garrison commander (BrigadierGeneral Amir Machmud) appealed over Djakarta radio for discipline and observance of the law in future demonstrations against price rises. He said the military authorities fully understood the suffering of the people who had to contend with the price increases, but stern measures would have to be taken if they did not observe the law.