Slaughterhouse in Indonesia

Indonesia is passing through a period which could lead to its disintegration as a nation. The standing of its new military government and its leader Bung Karno has dropped to zero. The admitted slaughter of 87,000 Communists (according to Sukarno) by the Indonesian army and Moslem lynch mobs is a deed of appalling evil which demands universal condemnation. (Why has the American government been silent on this? Would it have remained silent if the slaughter had been done by the Communists?)

According to the little available information, squads of army officers and men, aided by Moslem gangs, went through the country rounding up all known Communist leaders, and executed them without hearing, trial or accusation. If Sukarno admits 87,000 dead, then the figure of 150,000 first reported is probably closer to the truth. Actually, we simply do not know what is going on in Indonesia since it passed under military control. With American backing, the United Nations ought to institute an investigation of the slaughter; the International League for Human Rights and the UN International Lawyer’s Commission at Geneva ought to get on to this story. Such an investigation would in no way need to condone the Indonesian Communist movement. If what appears to have been a premature Communist coup had succeeded, we have not the slightest doubt that the victorious Communists would have instituted their own bloody purge. Their slaughter of the six Indonesian army generals was a foretaste of what might have happened had they won power

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