The International People Tribunal for 1965 and the Indonesian Genocide

The International People’s Tribunal addressed the many forms of violence during the period of the massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia. It was held in The Hague, The Netherlands, in November 2015, to commemorate fifty years since the killings began. The Tribunal, as a people’s court, holds no jurisdiction and was an attempt to achieve symbolic justice for the crimes of 1965.

This book offers new and previously unpublished insights into the types of crimes committed in the 1965 genocide and how these crimes were prosecuted at the International People’s Tribunal for 1965. Divided thematically, each chapter analyses a different crime – enslavement, sexual violence, torture – perpetrated during the Indonesian killings. The contributions consider either general patterns across Indonesia or a particular region of the archipelago. The book reflects on how crimes were charged at the International People’s Tribunal for 1965 and focuses on questions relating to the place of people’s tribunals in truth-seeking and justice claims, and the prospective for transitional justice in contemporary Indonesia.

Positioning the events in Indonesia in 1965 within the broader scope of comparative genocide studies, the book is an original and timely contribution to knowledge about the dynamics of the Indonesian killings. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian studies, in particular Southeast Asia, Genocide Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice and Transitional Justice Studies.

Saskia E. Wieringa is a honorary Professor at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She chairs the International People's Tribunal on the 1965 Crimes Against Humanity in Indonesia. Her latest books include: Heteronormativity, Passionate Aesthetics and Symbolic Subversion in Asia (with Abha Bhaiya and Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, 2015). Forthcoming in 2018 is The Genocide in Indonesia: The International People’s Tribunal on 1965 crimes against humanity (with Nursyahbani Katjasungkana), also published by Routledge.

Jess Melvin is Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at The University of Sydney, Australia. She is author of The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (Routledge, 2018) and co-editor, with Katharine McGregor and Annie Pohlman of The Indonesian Genocide of 1965 (2018).

Annie Pohlman is Senior Lecturer in Indonesian at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She is author of Women, sexual violence and the Indonesian killings of 1965-66 (2015) and co-editor of Genocide and Mass Atrocities in Asia (2013), also published by Routledge and the co-editor with Katharine McGregor and Jess Melvin of The Indonesian Genocide of 1965 (2018).