Truth Will Out: Indonesian Accounts of the 1965 Mass Violence

This striking compilation of essays surveys a variety of views about the 1965 mass violence in Indonesia and the current efforts to understand this event. Truth Will Out is the product of an oral history project involving senior and young researchers from Yogyakarta. The accounts presented include: a military man who continues to see the violence as justified, and who refuses survivors the status of victim; two Muslims who believe that the Communists were and continue to remain a threat to society; and a Catholic activist who reflects on how they were manipulated to support the violence. These accounts are complemented by the views of survivors of the violence, some of whom see this as a national problem that goes far beyond individual suffering. Truth Will Out provides a valuable window into why this past event still remains contested today, as well as why obstacles to reconciliation and full rehabilitation of the survivors still exist. *** "While the focus is mass violence, the narratives present a much broader social portrait, describing the conditions in the years before the killings and the enduring effects of poverty and stigmatization for survivors....an invaluable source of firsthand accounts from a highly sensitive historical period." - The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 74, Issue 01, February 2015 *** "Being a historian and ordained Jesuit priest, Baskara stresses in his conclusion - rather humble, and probably inspired by his Christian values - the importance of questioning 'where we ourselves stand' when dealing with '1965'; he does this without mentioning the problem of impunity and without acknowledging the importance of repairing injustice. Even so, his words are not empty." - Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, Vol. 171, Issue 1, 2015 (Series: Herb Feith Translation Series) [Subject: History, Asian Studies, Human Rights, Sociology]