Newly declassified documents expose Britain’s role in the 1965-66 Indonesian massacre

Shocking new evidence has revealed Britain’s pivotal role in one of the most brutal massacres of the postwar 20th century, where over 500,000 – and possibly up to three million – individuals linked to Indonesia’s Communist Party (PKI) were slaughtered. Newly declassified papers show that British officials played a key part in a propaganda campaign aimed at inciting violence against communists in Indonesia during 1965-66.

The campaign, which included covert efforts to encourage Indonesian military leaders and anti-communist factions to “cut out” the “communist cancer,” laid the groundwork for a mass killing spree orchestrated by the Indonesian army. Described by the CIA as one of the worst mass murders of the century, this massacre began in October 1965 with calls from British officials for the elimination of the PKI and its leaders. They warned that the country would remain at risk as long as communist figures were left unpunished.