"In terms of numbers killed the anti-PKI massacres in Indonesia rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930's, the Nazi mass murders during the Second World War and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950's." (Central Intelligence Agency, "Indonesia 1965: The Coup the Backfired," pp. 188-189) Quoted in "Subversion as Foreign Policy," by Audrey and George Kahin, pp. 227-228.

Kahin goes on to place the blame on the slaughter directly on Suharto. "Alleging PKI [Communist party] responsibility for Untung's putsch, he unleashed army units in a massive pogrom aimed at eliminating all Communists, their trade unions, peasant and other mass organizations and many individuals believed to have been sumpathetic to them. Apparently, in most cases soldiers carried out the massacres..." (Kahin, pp 228.)

As for how many were killed, Kahin writes the tallies differ. "Reasonably dispassionate estimates, however, have fixed the number killed as at least half a million 450,000-500,000 being acknowledged by Admiral Dudomo, Head of Suharto's Kopkamtib, who estimated that 750,000 others were jailed or sent to concentration camps (where many spent the rest of their lives)." (Kahin, pp 229.)

"In 1975, East Timor had a population of about 690,000. In the twenty years since then, more than 200,000 East Timorese have died as a result of the Indonesian occupation." Arthur Naiman in "East Timor: Genocide in Paradise", by Matthew Jardine, p. 7.

"In the annals of crime of this terrible century, Indonesia's assault against East Timor ranks high, not only because of its scale--perhaps the greatest death toll relative to the population since the Holocaust--but because it would have been so easy to prevent, and to bring to an end at any time." Noam Chomsky in "East Timor: Genocide in Paradise", by Matthew Jardine, p. 7.

Suharto resigned on May 21, 1998, after the collapse of the Indonesian economy.