Surakarta – Indonesian artists protested here Tuesday after police bowed to pressure from Islamic hardliners and shut down production of a film about the 1965-66 massacres of communists.
Protesters rallying outside police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, said police should protect the filmmakers from religious fanatics rather than shut down the film.
"We have deep concerns that police failed to stop intimidation by militant groups that accused the film of disseminating communist ideology," protest coordinator Kelik Ismunandar told reporters.
He said Islamic militants had threatened the crew three or four times and ordered them to halt production of the film, which focuses on events surrounding an alleged coup in 1965 blamed on the outlawed Communist Party.
The communist plot has never been proven but then-major general Suharto used the coup allegations to launch a massive pogrom against Communist Party members which killed up to 500,000 people.
Islamic groups were tasked with doing much of the killing and Suharto went on to become the country's military dictator for 32 years. The slaughter remains a highly sensitive episode in Indonesian history.
Surakarta police chief Taufik Ansorie, quoted by local newspaper Solo Pos, suggested the filmmakers avoid sensitive topics like the mass slaughter of communists in the 1960s.
"As it is about public wounds, the film has faced lots of resistance. We urge the production to be reviewed," the police chief said, adding: "We are responsible for maintaining security."
Eros Djarot, the director of the film entitled "Lastri" after a female communist activist, said the police were backing militant Islamic extremists over artists whose rights are protected under the constitution.
"I can't understand why the security apparatus bowed to those who want to set up Islamic law. They should have respected our laws. Our laws ensure the freedom of expression of the Indonesian people," he told AFP. "I'll fight this and finish the film. I'll never stop. This is tyranny from minority groups that are threatening our nation."
The Attorney General last year banned schoolbooks that failed to comply with the official version of history by explicitly blaming the Communist Party for the alleged coup.
Debate about the coup was banned under Suharto, who ruled from 1966 until 1998 and died earlier this year.
Historians have suggested the US-backed military orchestrated the alleged coup to tighten its grip on power and wipe out the Communist Party, which had been thriving in mainly Muslim Indonesia.