Contact: John M. Miller +1-718-596-7668;
+1-917-690-4391; john@etan.org
East
Timor and Indonesian Action Network projects images from the
Oscar-nominated documentary THE ACT OF KILLING on World Bank
headquarters
Human Rights group calls on World Bank to acknowledge role in the mass killing of one million Indonesians
February 20, 2014 –
The Oscar-nominated documentary THE ACT OF KILLING was projected on the
World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. Thursday in an action by
the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network. The group is calling on
the World Bank to acknowledge its role in the 1965 military coup in
Indonesia that lead to the massacre of an estimated one million
civilians. The World Bank helped prop up the corrupt government of
Suharto, the general who lead the coup and ordered the mass killings.
The Bank sent the Suharto regime $30 billion in development aid over
the course of three decades despite knowing $10 billion had been looted
by the government.
“THE
ACT OF KILLING powerfully highlights the ongoing impunity within
Indonesia for the 1965 mass murders,” said John M. Miller of the East
Timor and Indonesian Action Network. “Tonight we highlight the World
Bank's support for the Suharto regime, which knowingly backed his
corrupt government while his post-coup body count climbed. We urge the
World Bank to acknowledge its role in Suharto's many crimes and to
apologize and provide reparations to the survivors. Institutions like
the World Bank must also be held accountable for their financial
assistance to the murderers and decades of support as they continued to
violate human rights.”
“The
World Bank gave $30 billion dollars to a dictator who killed an
estimated one million of his own citizens,” said THE ACT OF KILLING
filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer. “The murderers spent years profiting off
of their heinous crimes with the World Bank and other global financial
institutions footing the bill.”
The
projection on the World Bank Thursday launched the I HONOR campaign to
remember the victims of the mass killings. Supporters are tweeting
photos of themselves with signs that read “I HONOR VICTIM #...” to
humanize each of the estimated one million victims of the coup and
pressure the World Bank, and other international entities, to publicly
acknowledge their complicity in the murders.
THE
ACT OF KILLING, currently Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary
feature, has been recognized as one of the best films of 2014. The film
has received over 60 awards including Best Documentary from the British
Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). While the mass killings
of 1965 are an open secret in Indonesia, the government has never
acknowledged or apologized for sponsoring the murders. THE ACT OF
KILLING, which has been shown in thousands of private screenings and is
available free online throughout Indonesia, is empowering victims’
families to demand reparations from the government for the first time.
About East Timor and Indonesian Action Network
The East
Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) advocates for democracy,
justice and human rights for Timor-Leste, West Papua and Indonesia. In
2012, the government of the Democratic Republic Timor-Leste awarded
ETAN the Order of Timor (Ordem Timor) for its role in the liberation of
the country. More information about ETAN can be found at: http://www.etan.org
About THE ACT OF KILLING
In
THE ACT OF KILLING, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer and executive
produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, the filmmakers expose a
corrupt regime that celebrates death squad leaders as heroes.
When
the Indonesian government was overthrown in 1965, small-time gangster
Anwar Congo and his friends went from selling movie tickets on the
black market to leading death squads in the mass murder of over a
million opponents of the new military dictatorship. Anwar boasts of
killing hundreds with his own hands, but he's enjoyed impunity ever
since, and has been celebrated by the Indonesian government as a
national hero. When approached to make a film about their role in the
genocide, Anwar and his friends eagerly comply—but their idea of being
in a movie is not to provide reflective testimony. Instead, they
re-create their real-life killings as they dance their way through
musical sequences, twist arms in film noir gangster scenes, and gallop
across prairies as Western cowboys. Through this filmmaking process, the
moral reality of the act of killing begins to haunt Anwar and his
friends with varying degrees of acknowledgment, justification and
denial. More information about the film can be found at http://actofkilling.com/.
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John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email: etan@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller
Twitter: @etan009 Website: www.etan.org
