Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie warned Thursday against any revival of communism in Indonesia, urging people to remember the mistakes of the past.

"It is still fresh in our minds how communists ruined the country's life and caused a tragedy in which our heroes were killed," Habibie was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

He was referring to an abortive coup in 1965 blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), in which six army generals were killed.

"We should learn from the past so that we will not make the same mistakes again," Habibie said. "Don't turn history upside down by justifying the mistakes of the old order in the name of reform," he warned.

The PKI, then the world's second largest communist party after China's, was outlawed by Suharto immmediately after he took power in the wake of the coup.

The abortive coup was followed by a bloody purge in which some 500,000 suspected communists lost their lives, and some 700,000 more were jailed, according to the official count.

Unofficial counts have said at least one million people died in the slaughter that continued into 1966. A request for an investigation into the killings was made at the National Commission on Human Rights Wednesday by a group of ageing communist survivors, who are trying to compile a history of the 1965 killings.

But the commission rejected their request, saying it had no authority to delve into the past, commission member B.N. Marbun told AFP Thursday.

The Foundation Research for Victims of 1965-1966 Massacre "asked us to be involved in a joint commission they formed," Marbun said. "We rejected their proposal because [the commission] is an independent commission. Besides, we don't have the authority to investigate the case which took place before we were established in 1993. I told them that they have the right to probe and I wish them success," he added.

The foundation was formed by survivors of the massacre, including celebrated writer Pramudya Ananta Toer, after the fall of Suharto in May last year. Suharto banned all communist teachings. The possession of books on communism was enough to land people in jail.

Habibie's government has released several ageing PKI prisoners on humanitarian grounds, allowed Tur to travel abroad for the first time, and slightly eased the ban on studying communism. But the bar on teaching, espousing or preaching communism remains in effect.