Indonesia may free 20,000

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32701, 2 September 1971, Page 13

Indonesia may free 20,000

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Sept. 1. The Indonesian Government appeared to have begun a programme to release more than 20,000 political prisoners by the end of this year, “The Times” reported today from Djakarta.

Mr Adam Malik, the Foreign Minister, said last week that the total would be reduced from the present 45,000 to 23,000 over the next four months, 6000 to be freed in September.

His figure of 45,000 is the lowest yet published. An estimate of 70,000 has been current, though an Amnesty International officer last year mentioned 50,000.

Mr Malik’s statement has since been repeated by other Government spokesmen and

yesterday General Pannggabean, the Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces, said that all “Category C” prisoners were to be released. The freed prisoners would be kept under observation, he said.

This will be partly for their own protection, as previous releases have produced many cases of villagers attacking men returning home. This is “the social problem” to which officials refer when discussing the difficulties of a release programme. But enough former prisoners have been caught in later anti-Communist campaigns to warrant continued critical surveillance as well. Mr Malik’s figures make sense only if it is assumed that several thousand Category C Prisoners have already been released. Early this year they were estimated to total 30,000, together with 5000 in Category A and up to 20,000 in Category B.