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The Forgotten Massacre

Cover The Forgotten Massacre
Author	Peer Holm Jørgensen
Original title	Den Glemte Massakre
Translator	Hans-Henrik Pedersen
Cover artist	Friedrich Joost
Language	Danish
Genre	drama, history
Publisher	Isotia Writing Company
Publication date	2007
Publication place	Denmark
Published in English	February 9, 2012
Media type	Amazon Kindle eBook
Pages	298
ISBN	978-87-99151820

THE FORGOTTEN MASSACRE Also referred to as G-30-S PKI

The Forgotten Massacre is a powerful personal story based on the author's experiences in a reality most people will not want exists. But it does! Imagine that your membership of the local dance club not only triggers your own, but also your family's death! The novel is a personal tale of dreams and friendships, love, affection and jealousy, strong mental relations, about naivety, guardian angels and faith in being able to cope with the impossible. It is a novel about what people are able to do at each other without wanting to, when a superpower plays Russian roulette with a nation and its population. When we look at the world society as a whole today, the novel may raise the question: “Is the present time different from the past?”

In the summer of 1965 unrest simmers as so often in Indonesia. President Sukarno, the freedom hero from the uprising against the Dutch, has lost his grip on the coalition of Muslims, communists and the military, whose internal strife he has used to keep himself in power.

On the night between 30 September and 1 October an action, that should prevent a group of generals to take power, brings the nation into a coup and a counter coup. Six generals are murdered within a few hours. Without participating the Communist Party is blamed. The army responds with a brutal slaughter of communists and their followers. In four months one million people are killed, in a merciless civil war between communists, Muslims and the Army. Soon the milestones Java are decorated with decapitated heads.

U.S. welcomes the vengeance. Nobody knows that CIA stands behind and that an employee in the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta has provided the army with lists, right down to village level, of Communists and their sympathizers.

In the Armageddon that follows five young women and men, in the gap between teenagers and adults, are abruptly pulled out of their plans and dreams for the future. Despite their widely different ethnic backgrounds, culture, political beliefs, morality, religion, and the lack of same, the five young people rely on each other to survive the massacre. But can they trust each other in a civil war where many years of neighbors and friends are ready not only to inform against each other, but also to participate in the killing? In the hope to survive.

When the author, 19 years old, by chance became involved in the events which the historians later dubbed "The Forgotten Massacre" he had no idea that the U.S. could have contributed to the mass killings ... not until many years later when he in the beginning of the 1990s read the following: "I have probably a lot of blood on my hands. But it is not that bad!" - Robert Martens, employed at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta in 1965

The phrase was published in an article written by Kathy Kadane printed in the New York Times. The article was commented with a denial of the U.S. involvement. "Robert Martens worked entirely on his own, without permission of any kind”, it was clearly stated by officials. However the article also stated: "... maybe. I don't remember. Maybe we did it. I have forgotten." - William Colby, director CIA, Far East Division in the 1960's.

The truth that should be concealed is the germ of this novel.

Release in Indonesia

The Forgotten Massacre was published in Indonesia in 2009 by Mizan, Bandung, Java. The reason for the publishing was that the novel gives a different view, very different on one of the darkest chapters in the Indonesian history.

Official book tour Indonesia

After the publishing in Indonesia the author Peer Holm Jørgensen was invited for a book tour in October 2009 to present the book and to discuss it in public and to make an official release on Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.

Among the discussion partners were the highly respected historian Asvi Warman Adam, a specialist in the history of the Indonesian Communist Party, PKI, and working in the organization writing the official Indonesian history.

Aris Arif, head of Southeast Asian Social studies at University Gadjah Mada, Indonesia’s oldest and biggest university, founded 1949, located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia’s cultural capital through the ages. Aris had a very direct message to the audience regarding the novel. In his opinion it should be read by every student in the schools, as it contains a very strong message to the Indonesian people: “We may never let this happen again!”

Journalist, writer Noorca M. Massardi, author of “September”, in which he in 600 pages, minute by minute, goes through what actually happened the night between 30 September / 1 October 1965. Opponent may not be the right word as Noorca had endorsed my novel on the front cover of the first edition.

Banned by an islamic group

A planned discussion at Togamas book store with a hundred students, arranged by Surabaya Readers Club, was cancelled due to treats from a radical Muslim group, which aren’t popular in Indonesia. Peer Holm Jørgensen offered to meet them alone face-to-face. However they refused. After the cancellation the group forced the book store to display a banner regretting that they had invited Peer Holm Jørgensen.

After a session at Multicultura Campus Realino, a student organization, in Yogyakarta Peer Holm Jørgensen was addressed by Zaki Habibi, from Universitas Islam Indonesia. He regretted the episode in Surabaya. “It has nothing to do with Islam,” he said.

Published languages

 * Published in Denmark in Danish October 2007
 * Published in Indonesia in Bahasa Indonesia June 2009 
 * Published on Amazon Kindle in English February 2012 
 * Publishing rights for U.S.A. and other countries are still available.

External links

• The Forgotten Massacre at amazon.com