Monday, August 3, 2015

THE BLOOD OF UP TO THREE MILLION INDONESIANS ON AMERICAN HANDS

"We know that U.S. embassy officials were compiling lists of thousands of names of public figures in Indonesia and handing these to the army and saying, 'Kill everybody on these lists and check off the names as you go, and give the lists back to us when you're done'" - filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer.

Watch: Democracy Now! interview with Joshua Oppenheimer.
DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG

October 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the 1965 genocide in Indonesia that left over one million people dead. Human rights groups are circulating petitions calling for the U.S. government to acknowledge its role in the genocide and to release CIA, military and other governmental records related to the mass killings. The United States provided the Indonesian army with financial, military and intelligence support at the time of the mass killings. Today we look at the pursuit of one Indonesian man confronting his brother's killers. In 1965, Adi Rukun's older brother was killed by the Komando Aksi, a paramilitary organization in Aceh. Adi Rukun's pursuit is the focus on Joshua Oppenheimer's new documentary, "The Look of Silence." In 2012, Oppenheimer released a companion film titled "The Act of Killing," in which he interviewed the Indonesian death squad leaders and worked with them to re-enact the real-life killings. The film was nominated for an Academy Award.

Democracy Now

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