An American library in 1965 Indonesia: From enlightenment to torture
CAS Advisory Council member Stan Harsha's essay has been published in the current edition of "Strategic Review, The Indonesian Journal of Leadership, Policy and World Affairs." Based on interviews with persons interrogated at the former Thomas Jefferson Library in Yogyakarta, and a review of U.S. officials' statements in declassified cables, published interviews and memoirs, this essay sheds some light on U.S. complicity in the 1965-66 massacre in Indonesia. Excerpt:
"When I learned that the Thomas Jefferson Library in Yogyakarta, Java’s cultural center, had been used as an interrogation center in October 1965, I was shocked. I visited the building and interviewed some of the witnesses who survived interrogations, abuse and subsequent imprisonment....Indonesians told me that the screams of the 1965 victims haunt the building...Human rights activists would like to convert the building into a memorial museum to help Indonesia learn from the victims’ stories."
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