How Did the Generals Die?

Abstract

Surprises often come to light when one rummages through dusty, crowded attics. In the course of casually rummaging through the hundreds of photocopied pages of the stenographic record of Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Heru Atmodjo's trial before the judges of the Extraordinary Military Tribunal (Mahmilub), I came across the documents translated below, which in their original form were included as appendices to the trial record. They consist of the reports composed by the team of five experts in forensic medicine who examined the bodies of the six generals (Yani, Suprapto, Parman, Sutojo, Harjono, and Pandjaitan) and lone, young lieutenant (Tendean) killed on the early morning of October 1, 1965. Their sober accounts offer the most exact, objective description of how these seven died that we will ever have. In view of the longstanding controversy on the matter, and the widely differing reports offered to the public in newspapers and magazines, it seemed to me worth translating them in full for the scholarly community.