THE SITUATION IN INDONESIA (REPORT #56 AS OF 4:00 P.M. EST)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00472A001500040055-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2006
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: November 9, 1965
• Content Type: IM

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OCI No. 3018
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
9 November 1965
The Situation in Indonesia
(Report #56 - As of 4:00 P.M. EST)
1. The anti-PKI drive continues at full throttle. In
Djakarta today a rally--the largest in the memory of the US
Embassy staff--called for the proscription of the Communists.
A spokesman for Sukarno who called for calm and temperance was
heckled with cries of "crush the PKI."
2. Defense Minister Nasution has issued a statement strongly
critical of the PKI in which he revealed that the army has asked
Sukarno that all who "slandered" the army and its officers be
"tried for treason," Nasution compared the 1 October insurrection
to the Communist uprising of 1948, in which the party was crushed
for several years.
3. An authoritative army source has told the US Embassy
that despite the ostensible support offered by Sukarno to
Foreign Minister Subandrio and several pro-Communist ministers
at last Saturday's cabinet meeting, the army is interpreting the
President's remarks to mean that these men are "dispersible" and
will act accordingly. The source added that the army is anti-
PKI and anti-Chinese Communist but not anti-Communist as such.
This position may facilitate any attempt by Sukarno and the PKI
leaders to set up a new party under another name.
4. General Sukendro, the only member of the army's "brain
trust" to survive the 1 October blood-bath, believes that Sukarno
does have in mind the establishment of a new, nationally-
oriented Communist Party. He added that the army would accept
communism as an "ideological but not a physical" element in the
Indonesian political structure, and noted that the military does
not want a party tied either to Moscow or to Peking.
State Dept. review completed
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5. Sukendro also said that the army does not want to
rule as a military dictatorship or junta. The idea appears
to be that the army would accept "trustworthy" civilians as
"partners" of the military in running the country.
6. A Moslem organization in Central Java reports that the
army there is not only weeding out suspected Communist
sympathizers from its own ranks but also shooting suspected
Communists on sight. Some 3,700 PKI members are already reported
to have been killed under this policy. While this figure may be
somewhat inflated, the army is clearly acting ruthlessly in this
area of greatest Communist strength.
7. The army is also pushing the anti-PKI drive in Northern
Sumatra, Removal of PKI members or sympathizers from responsible
or influential positions continues at all levels. The possibility
is growing that the dismissal of so many low-level PKI adherants
will create a pool of desperate men which the PKI can use for
terrorist activities. Isolated terroristic acts continue in the
area, but there has been no wide-scale insurgency, although the
army continues to guard against this possibility.
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