それぞれのアニバーサリー

The Act of KillingやThe Look of Silenceなど1965年のインドネシアの大虐殺を取り上げた映画のオッペンハイマー監督がニューヨークタイムズに寄稿していました。なんでこのタイミングなのかと思ったのですが、日本では9月30日事件と呼ばれているようにこの時期に起きたもので、しかも今年が50周年でした。

Suharto’s Purge, Indonesia’s Silence
By JOSHUA OPPENHEIMERSEPT. 29, 2015

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of a mass slaughter in Indonesia. With American support, more than 500,000 people were murdered by the Indonesian Army and its civilian death squads. At least 750,000 more were tortured and sent to concentration camps, many for decades.

The victims were accused of being “communists,” an umbrella that included not only members of the legally registered Communist Party, but all likely opponents of Suharto’s new military regime — from union members and women’s rights activists to teachers and the ethnic Chinese. Unlike in Germany, Rwanda or Cambodia, there have been no trials, no truth-and-reconciliation commissions, no memorials to the victims. Instead, many perpetrators still hold power throughout the country.

この件は過去にブログでも取り上げました。

（自分メモ）ビフォーアフターのビフォー

（自分メモ）ビフォーアフターのアフター

このOpEdの目的を述べているのは3パラグラフ目で米国はこの虐殺を認め、南アフリカのように真実と和解に至るプロセスに取り組むべきだと主張しています。なじみのない出来事なので、1-2パラグラフ目では背景説明をしていますよね。

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation, and if it is to become the democracy it claims to be, this impunity must end. The anniversary is a moment for the United States to support Indonesia’s democratic transition by acknowledging the 1965 genocide, and encouraging a process of truth, reconciliation and justice.

世界的にみると知られていない事件のためか背景説明もしてくれています。

On Oct. 1, 1965, six army generals in Jakarta were killed by a group of disaffected junior officers. Maj. Gen. Suharto assumed command of the armed forces, blamed the killings on the leftists, and set in motion a killing machine. Millions of people associated with left-leaning organizations were targeted, and the nation dissolved into terror — people even stopped eating fish for fear that fish were eating corpses. Suharto usurped President Sukarno’s authority and established himself as de facto president by March 1966. From the very beginning, he enjoyed the full support of the United States.

もちろんこのような背景説明だけではピンとこないでしょうから、I felt I had wandered into Germany 40 years after the Holocaust, only to find the Nazis still in power.といった比喩も交えています。この比喩が的を得ているとしたら恐ろしいことですね。

I did not know if it was safe to approach the killers, but when I did, I found them open. They offered boastful accounts of the killings, often with smiles on their faces and in front of their grandchildren. I felt I had wandered into Germany 40 years after the Holocaust, only to find the Nazis still in power.

Today, former political prisoners from this era still face discrimination and threats. Gatherings of elderly survivors are regularly attacked by military-backed thugs. Schoolchildren are still taught that the “extermination of the communists” was heroic, and that victims’ families should be monitored for disloyalty. This official history, in effect, legitimizes violence against a whole segment of society.

監督はインドネシア政府だけではなくアメリカ政府も事件の関与を認めるべきだと主張していますね。

We need truth and accountability from the United States as well. U.S. involvement dates at least to an April 1962 meeting between American and British officials resulting in the decision to “liquidate” President Sukarno, the populist — but not communist — founding father of Indonesia. As a founder of the nonaligned movement, Sukarno favored socialist policies; Washington wanted to replace him with someone more deferential to Western strategic and commercial interests.

ここでは虐殺を実行している側を援助していた欧米政府とメディアとを批判しています。スカルノ大統領が冷戦時の東側に着いていたからとはいえ、冷静後もメディアの評価は変わっていないです。

Western aid to Suharto’s dictatorship, ultimately amounting to tens of billions of dollars, began flowing while corpses still clogged Indonesia’s rivers. The American media celebrated Suharto’s rise and his campaign of death. Time magazine said it was the “best news for years in Asia.”

シンガポールは建国50周年でしたし、1965年は東南アジアでの政治変動の時だったようです。高速鉄道での泣き笑いもいいですが、当事国の歴史にも関心を払えるようになりたいものです。