30 September Movement (Recount Text Milik Yazaka)
30 September Movement (Recount Text Milik Yazaka)
30 September Movement (Recount Text Milik Yazaka)
(G30S/PKI)
September 30th Movement, group of Indonesian
military personnel who captured and murdered six generals in
1965, marking the commencement of the abortive coup that
led to the fall from power of Sukarno, Indonesia's first
president. Late in the evening on Sept. 30, 1965, a group of
army conspirators calling itself the September 30th Movement
gathered in Jakarta with the aim of kidnapping and killing
seven army generals in the early hours of the following
morning.
The Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis
Indonesia; PKI) maintained that the coup attempt was an internal affair of the army. The army leadership, on
the contrary, insisted that it was part of a PKI plot to seize power and subsequently embarked on a mission to
purge the country of the perceived communist threat. In the following month the military slaughtered
communists and alleged communists across Java and in Bali; estimates of the number of people killed
ranged from 80,000 to more than 1,000,000. In the following years communists, alleged communists, and
their families were frequently denied basic rights (e.g., the right to a fair trial, the right to equal opportunity
in employment, and freedom from discrimination). Between 1969 and 1980, approximately 10,000 persons,
primarily known or purported communists, were detained without trial on the island of Buru in the
Moluccas.
With the destruction of the PKI, one of the
elements of balance that had supported the Sukarno
regime was eliminated, and the president himself
came under increasing pressure. In March 1966,
against a background of student action, the army
forced Sukarno to delegate extensive powers to
Suharto, now chief of staff of the army. With his new
authority, Suharto banned the PKI and moved gradually to consolidate his position as the effective head of
government. In March 1967 the Indonesian legislature installed Suharto as acting president, and in March
1968 he was appointed to the presidency in his own right. Sukarno was kept under house arrest until his
death on June 21, 1970.
The years between 1965 and 1968 were among
the most tumultuous and violent in Indonesia's history,
and this period has served as the backdrop for a
number of widely acclaimed works of literature and
film.