Political Genocide and the History of Land Conflict in Klaten, Indonesia

Pre-submission seminar

Abstract

In 1965 and 1966, the Indonesian army killed hundreds of thousands of unarmed Indonesians associated with the communist movement — one of the most understudied political genocides of the 20th century. This thesis traces the army’s reliance on civilian co-perpetrators. It finds that in Klaten, Central Java, land conflicts motivated local co-perpetrators to intensify and distort the violence.

About the speaker

Mathias Hammer (MA, Karl-Franzens University, Graz, 2005) is a PhD candidate in the Bell School’s Department of Political and Social Change. His research project is about political genocide and mass violence. Reflecting on the role of human agency and impersonal forces in history, he investigates how a locally specific historical background can make ordinary people participate in mass violence.

Chair: Emeritus Professor Robert Cribb

Image credit: Joakim Skovgaard, A View from Wedi near Klaten, 1908.

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