Pancasila Youth

Pancasila Youth
Pemuda Pancasila
Leader(s) Yapto Soerjosoemarno
Dates of operation 1965-
Active region(s) Indonesia
Ideology Anti-communism
Pancasila
Major actions Beheadings, Tortures, Rapes
Notable attacks Indonesian killings of 1965–66
Maluku sectarian conflict
Size 3,000,000 (2012)

The Pancasila Youth (Indonesian: Pemuda Pancasila, PP) is an Indonesian paramilitary organization established by General Abdul Haris Nasution on 28 October 1959 as the youth wing of the League of Supporters of Indonesian Independence.[1][2][3] It has been headed since 1981 by Yapto Soerjosoemarno.[4] and was one of the semi-official political gangsters (preman) groupings that supported the New Order military dictatorship of Suharto. The name refers to Pancasila, the official "five principles" of the Indonesian state. Pancasila Youth played an important role in supporting Suharto's military coup in 1965: they ran death squads for the Indonesian army, killing a million or more alleged communists and Chinese Indonesians across the province of North Sumatra, as described in the 2012 documentary The Act of Killing.

In the documentary, it is stated that the organisation currently has three million members. National membership estimates from the late 1990s ranged from four to ten million people.[4]

See also

References

  1. "Jakarta prominent mass organization and ethnic groups". Jakarta Post. 28 August 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  2. Hefner, Robert W. "Social Legacies and Possible Futures". Indonesia: The Great Transition. p. 120.
  3. Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (Ed) (2001). Violence and the State in Suharto's Indonesia. SEAP Publications. p. 16. ISBN 9780877277293.
  4. 1 2 Youth Gangs and Otherwise in Indonesia; RYTER, Loren, University of Michigan; presented at the Global Gangs Workshop, 14-15 May 2009

Further reading

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