Asian Human Rights Commission

In November 2000, 26 victims of the 1965-1966 Indonesian massacre were exhumed in a forest near Wonosobo in Central Java along with many bullet casings in the first official opening of a mass grave from that period that was permitted by the Indonesian government. Among the victims were 21 people killed in 1966 by the Indonesian military as part of a nationwide operation organised by Suharto to "purge" suspected communists - a massacre that took more than one million lives. The bodies were then stored in a hospital until they could be reburied properly.

The organisation which conducted the exhumation, Yayasan Penelitian Korban Pembunuhan or YPKP (Indonesian Institute for the Study of the 1965-1966 Massacre), planned to rebury the 26 bodies. Two days before the planned reburial the organisers held talks with local officials who said that care should be taken not to allow the ceremony to become "too demonstrative," and an agreement was reached to keep the event low-key. Consequently, plans were made to rebury the victims in a quiet ceremony in Kaloran, Temanggung, north of Yogyakarta in Central Java, on March 25 at which prayers would be said by Muslim, Christian and Buddhist priests during a multifaith service.

A day before the reburial was to take place, however, members of a group called Forum Ukuwah Islamiya Kaloran (FUIK) announced their intention to prevent the ceremony from taking place. Early in the morning of the next day a group of people surrounded the home of Irawan Mangunkusuma, an adviser to the central board of YPKP who was in charge of the ceremony, where a number of YPKP members from various parts of Indonesia had gathered for the event. The group attacked the house, and Mangunkusuma and the others were forced to flee. Mangunkusuma went into hiding to protect himself from further violence. During the melee, a vehicle standing outside of the house was damaged, although police prevented it from being burned.

Later in the morning two vehicles with the remains of seven victims were scheduled to leave for Yogyakarta for reburial in family graves. Before they could depart though, another mob of about 50 people surrounded the vehicles and began assaulting the drivers and a member of YPKP. One of the vehicles carrying two bodies succeeded in getting away, but the five coffins in the other vehicle were taken out of the cars, the coffins were forcibly opened and the bodies were strewn on the ground. Fortunately, YPKP reported later that the bodies of all of the victims were safely and properly buried elsewhere.

Afterwards the home of Mangunkusuma was occupied by 15 people who were part of the mob that prevented the reburial from taking place. A crowd of about 3,000 people has since arrived in Kaloran and has been circling his house, many of them brandishing sharp weapons and yelling slogans, like "Death to Irawan" and "Irawan is PKI" - the Indonesian acronym name of the Communist Party that was crushed by Suharto and is still used to label "dangerous" people.