Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, has acknowledged “gross human rights violations” in his country’s history and vowed to prevent a repeat.
Hi cited 12 “regrettable” events, including an anti-communist purge during the Cold War’s height.
According to some estimates, the massacres killed approximately 500,000 people.
Mr. Widodo is the second Indonesian president to publicly apologize for the bloodshed of the 1960s, following the late Abdurrahman Wahid’s apology in 2000.
The violence erupted after communists were accused of assassinating six generals in an attempted coup during a power struggle between the Communists, the military, and Islamist groups.
“With a clear mind and an earnest heart, I as (Indonesia’s) head of state acknowledge that gross human rights violations did occur in many instances,” Mr Widodo said at a news conference outside the presidential palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“And I deeply regret that those violations occurred,” the president, also known as Jokowi, added.
The United States was aware of the massacres in Indonesia in the 1960s.
Investigating Indonesia’s past massacres
Time is running out for those who witnessed Indonesia’s darkest hour.
He cited events that occurred between 1965 and 2003, including the kidnapping of democratic activists during protests against former President Suharto’s iron-fisted presidency in the late 1990s.
The president also emphasized human rights violations in the Papua region, which borders Papua New Guinea and has a long-running separatist movement, as well as during an insurgency in the Aceh province, which is located in the north of the island of Sumatra.
He said the government wanted to restore victims’ rights “fairly and wisely without undermining judicial resolution,” but he didn’t say how.