[The first court hearing of a class action by representatives of millions of victims of 1965 took place in a Jakarta district court on 13 April. Because of the absence of the five defendants, with the exception of one who Was represented by an attorney, the case was postponed until 23 April. The following is taken from reports in Media Indonesia and Tempo Interaktif which have been reporting the action.]

Pramoedya: 'Just dissolve this country' (from Tempo)

Pramoedya was sitting, leaning on a walking stick and smiling occasionally as he looked at the three judges hearing the case.

He wanted to be present at the first hearing of the Class Action filed on behalf of hundreds of thousands of former prisoners and detainees who were victims of 1965. Pramoedya was one of many thousands alleged by the New Order government of Suharto to be members of the Indonesian Communist Party. They are asking for their rights to be restored.

People like Pramoedya feel that from the time of Suharto up to the present day, he has been obstructed in having his works published. "I came because I wanted to see how the case would proceed," he said. "Let the eyes of the law open up to our struggle for our rights," he said in disjointed words.

He said he felt disappointed by the way they had been treated, which differed from the rest of society. "The state has paid no attention to us," he said. "Just dissolve it!" The Class Action is being taken against five Indonesian presidents up to and including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The other four are: Suharto, BJ Habibie, Abdurrachman Wahid, and Megawati Sukarnoputri.

The presiding judge decided to postpone the hearing because, with the exception of an attorney representing one of the defendants (Abdurrahman Wahid), none was present in court. The judge announced that the case would be read out at the next hearing, and ordered that the defendants be notified again to appear.

A member of the team of lawyers representing the applicants asked the court to issue an announcement in the press inviting those wishing to join the action and those wishing to dissociate from the action to do so. 'If we were to do this in the newspapers, the costs would be prohibitive', said the lawyer.

The sixteen persons taking the action are divided into seven groups. The first group consists of those who were forced to resign from their jobs or were dismissed, with the result that they were deprived of their earning capacity, who were demanding the sum of Rp. 937,500,000 each.

The second group is comprised of members of the armed forces, the police and civil servants who lost their pensions, each demanding compensation of Rp. 562,500.000.

The third group consists of people subjected to special investigation [penelitian khusus] and said to come from an unclean environment, with the result that they lost their jobs and were unable to find work elsewhere, demanding compensation of Rp 572,000.000 each.

The fourth were deprived of their veteran pensions, demanding compensation of Rp 480,000,000 each.

The fifth are persons whose land or other possessions were seized who are demanding Rp 1,000,000,000.

The sixth group were expelled from school or were unable to continue their education because they were alleged to be involved in the G30S, who are demanding Rp 2,500,000,000 each.

The seventh group consists of those who were obstructed in their creative work and prevented from publishing their writings or putting on performances, who are demanding Rp 2,400,000,000 each.

Besides demanding material damages, the seven groups of applicants are demanding immaterial damages of Rp 10,000,000,000 each

The Class Action argues that the governments were acting in violation of the law, with the result that the economic, social and cultural rights of the victims were violated.