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perpetrators’ moral obligation but also created religious obligations to participate in the killings.
Organizations not only played a role in justifying but also coordinating the killings. The direct involvement of the military and local organizations was necessary to maintain the intensity and scope of the murders throughout the islands of Java and Bali. On Java as the armed forces began internal purges of leftist officers, Muslim youth groups and NU leaders initiated attacks on PKI members. In Bali, PNI-backed vigilante gangs and NU-affiliated Ansor youth gangs were armed and directed by the military to participate in arrest and execution operations. By allowing regional power conflicts and individual rivalries to affect the nature of the killing, the use of civilian groups disguises the importance of state objectives on the killings of 1965-66. It has leaded some to label them as spontaneous. Yet, the military’s role as instigator and its movements to direct the purges reveal the states importance. Together the participation of the military and local political and religious groups highlights the essential role of organizations in the mass killings.
Organizations played a crucial role in mobilizing participants. The military, political party, and religious authorities played an active role in shaping and encouraging violent anti-communism based on existing religious ideas and cultural analogies. Further, violence became an acceptable solution for pre-existing conflicts, which were based on perceptions of relative deprivation and religious differences. The military provided the opportunity for the perpetrators to take revenge on and to profit from victims. Similarly, opportunity and risk assessment played a role in the military’s actions. Support from the United States removed the possibility for sanctions so that genocide became cost-free.
The use of youth organizations highlights the importance of social networks and event-level in-group processes. The violence provided opportunities to establish oneself in a social hierarchy based on notions of power and masculinity. “The vigilantes of
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1965-1966 were primarily young men, eager to demonstrate their ‘courage’ and their sense of ‘revolutionary’ commitment”. The manipulation of such youthful enthusiasm provided a deadly force for the military’s project. The exploited by leaders of traditional institutions of communal responsibility and labor to motivate collective killing of the PKI presents further evidence of the importance of local ties.
In addition to the many willing participants, the military and local organizations mobilized the involvement of many others through terror. The government’s campaign made it impossible to remain politically neutral. Participation in the killings provided direct evidence of support for Suharto’s New Order. Anyone refusing to comply with the murders was labeled guilty by association and suffered the same fate as PKI members.
I have depicted how elite interests, methods of justification, organizations, and methods of mobilization worked within an interactive frame resulting in the state mass killings of Indonesia 1965-66. Yet, this framework cannot completely explain the events. For instance, why did so many people need to be killed? A full-scale genocide went beyond ensuring new national and local power positions or resolving individual personal or ideological conflicts. Understanding the killings as part of larger process of social reconstruction may help explain the mass violence. Within a context of national crisis, the PKI became the scapegoat for Indonesia’s political and financial ills. The military’s manipulation of cultural stories depicting threats of total destruction lead to a ‘purifying violence’, necessary for a new cycle of growth, peace, and prosperity. The killings represent a social purge in preparation for a reconstruction of society. Though the actual transformation may have been more superficial, the process highlights the ability of the state manipulate aspects of culture in struggles for power.
Constructing a framework with which to understand collective political violence, I have examined state mass killings in Indonesia 1965-66. Further studies applying such a frame to other incidents of collective political violence will determine its general applicability. To truly comprehend collective violence, one must understand such
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interactions within comparative framework analyzing specific situations.
Can a framework be applied cross-nationally and to other forms of collective political violence? Certainly, situations and events are unique. However, understanding the
necessary conditions for collective political violence could aid future preventive policies.
The analysis of state mass killings in Indonesia shows the importance of opportunity. National and local leaders may use political violence when it is seen as cost-free. The international community has a role in creating costs to deter leaders form using violence in struggles for power, wealth, and prestige. People deserve an arena in which they can hold national leaders responsible for crimes against humanity. Currently, the skeletons for such organizations exist. Without the support of the most powerful nations, these organizations will remain ineffectual. To prevent tragic abuses of power, the people of the world must stand together and demand accountability for their leaders.
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