Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

One of the biggest mass murders of the 20th century began in Indonesia on 1 October 1965.
In an unprecedented persecution of members and supporters of the Communist Party, between 500.000 and three million were murdered and several hundred thousand more incarcerated. Among them were also countless women: members of leftist organizations, as well as wives and relatives of political prisoners. During their imprisonment, many were subject to systematic sexual assault by the military and militia and exploitation and stigmatisation of these women often continued even after their release. However, the fates of these female victims are still rarely given special consideration in reconciliation processes.
To mark of the 50th anniversary of the massacre, a forum of experts will therefore explicitly be devoted to the stories of female survivors. Attending the forum are: Indonesian women’s rights campaigner Ita Fadia Nadia, who has been documenting the experiences of female survivors for many years and in doing so been giving them a public voice, Anett Keller, journalist and editor of the German compilation “Indonesien 1965ff. Die Gegenwart eines Massenmordes” (regiospectra, 2015), and author and film producer Putu Oka Sukanta, himself a former political prisoner. He is co-author of the documentary film “Plantungan: Portrait of Women’s Suffering and Resilience” (Indonesia 2011, 46 min., in Indonesian with English subtitles), which will be shown at the end of the forum.

With: Anett Keller, Ita Fatia Nadia, Putu Oka Sukanta, Reading: Dunja Funke * In cooperation with the South East Asia Information Office and the regiospectra publishing house.