communist who were atheist or moderately religious were also viewed as enemies of Muslim groups. The arm forces, then were traditionally reactionary and hated communist.

The people were supporting communist because this was the first time that oppressed peasants got a piece of land. Also peasants were getting more and more aware of their rights.

The foreign players

The PKI had close relationship with the communist countries. While it is not wrong to say that China and USSR supported PKI, the PKI was more an indigenous and independent movement.

The western countries led by USA found Suharto as a proxy. The west, Indonesian arm forces, rich and Islamic groups formed an unholy alliance.

The Killings

The massacre started after the counter-coup of Suharto. US diplomats and CIA officers, including the former US ambassador toIndonesia and Australia, Marshall Green, subsequently admitted working hand-in-glove with Suharto and his butchers in carrying through the massacres. They personally provided the names of thousands of PKI members from CIA files for the death lists.

David Jenkins, former foreign editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, said that the Australian, British and US embassies were aware of the mass killings, but did not raise a single protest to the systemic slaughter. All the embassies knew the PKI had not initiated the coup but did nothing to protect the victims from the military.

Brad Simpson, Assistant Professor of History and International Studies at Princeton University and author of “Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and US-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968”, said the US and British governments did “everything in their power” to ensure that