Aidit’s Death Reported

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30938, 20 December 1965, Page 17

Aidit’s Death Reported

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 19. The Indonesian Communist . Party leader, Mr Aidit, was shot two months ago by an Army firing squad, the Djakarta correspondent of the “Observer” reported today. The correspondent said: “After weeks of wildly conflicting reports about his fate, I can reveal on good authority he was executed on November 22 in a village near Solo, Central Java.”

Mr Aidit disappeared after the attempt to topple President Sukarno on October 1. The correspondent said he had built up a cell network to take over the country after Sukarno’s overthrow. He added: “When the coup failed, Aidit went underground and tried to reassemble his battered organisation from a base in the Klaton and Bojolali area. But fast-moving special commandos, under Colonel Sarawo Edie, kept him on the run. “He is reported to have withdrawn with a small group of followers to the MedbabuMerapi mountains in an attempt to join General Supardjo, who was holding out

with fewer than 100 men in West Java.

“Aidit was trapped by a triple ring of troops thrown around Solo. He was hiding in the house of a village headman, a trusted Communist Party member, when he was arrested. “After a brief interrogation, he was taken out into the dark and shot. “Aidit’s death has been kept secret by President Sukarno, who may prefer to combine the news with his long delayed announcement about the political fate of the P.K.1.” Since the attempted coup. President Sukarno has resisted demands by the Army for a formal ban on the P.K.I. and affiliated organisation. He was playing for time apparently in the hope of reshaping the Indonesian political party structure in such a way to accommodate P.K.I. members, the correspondent added.

But two moves this week showed the Army was urging policy changes on the President. The first was the drastic revaluation of the highly inflated Indonesian rupiah. The second was the removal of the Foreign Minister (Dr. Subandrio) as deputy commander of the Supreme Operations Command, the country’s highest executive body. The “Observer” report on Mr Aidit’s death came after a warning by Dr. Sukarno on Friday that those who opposed Indonesia’s “national revolution” might be tried.and shot. In a speech to a women’s group, he made dear he considered Right-wing elements just as liable for the death penalty as those responsible for the coup attempt. Military tribunals would try “those directly involved in the coup” along with all others who “consciously or unconsciously retrogressed the national revolution.” The Army commander, Major General Suharto, announced last Wednesday that the tribunals would begin sitting in January.