Introduction: the massacres of 1965-1966: new interpretations and the current debate in Indonesia

"The mass violence which spread across Indonesia following an attempt-ed coup on 1 October 1965 claimed the lives of half a million people and irrevocably changed the lives of millions more. Despite an up-surge in attention from researchers and community-based activists over the last fifteen years, these events, known collectively as the 'Indonesian killings' or the 'Indonesian massacres' of the mid-1960s, have remained a murky part of Indonesian history." (author's abstract