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Andrew Hickman’s obituary of Carmel Budiardjo, the campaigner for human rights and justice in Indonesia, refers back to the political results of the chilly conflict in south-east Asia. One consequence was that the west turned a blind eye to the 1965 bloodbath in Indonesia and to the anti-left purge below Normal Suharto.
Carmel’s organisation Tapol was a lonely voice in exposing the plight of tens of hundreds of political prisoners and their households. She was splendidly forthright and centered on the trigger. In 1990 after I visited Indonesia for the Guardian to cowl the – largely ignored – twenty fifth anniversary of the bloodbath, her assist with contacts included the nice novelist and ex-prisoner Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and proved to be invaluable.
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