Leverhulme Lecture

Wednesday 18 September, 4pm-6pm

Annie Pohlman, University of Queensland and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, University of Glasgow

Continuity in state-sponsored sexual and gender-based violence in modern Indonesia

Annie Pohlman teaches Indonesian history at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Her research examines Indonesian history, comparative genocide studies, torture, gendered experiences of mass violence, and oral testimony. She is currently undertaking a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship in History at the University of Glasgow.

Watch the recording of the lecture

Lecture Abstract

In this paper I compare the forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) perpetrated by the Indonesian security services during two periods: the Indonesian genocide of alleged Communists in 1965–1966 and the thirty-year separatist conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Republic of Indonesia (1976–2005). I begin with a brief overview of the forms of this violence used against men, women and children in both periods of mass violence, drawing attention to the similarities in the types of violence used, by which actors, and against which types of victims. I show how there was great continuity in specific forms of this violence against men and women: examples include, for women, rape during periods of detention and sexual violence against women suspected of having familial connections with alleged internal enemies (communists in 1965, GAM during the conflict), and for men and women, forced nakedness during periods of interrogation. The main perpetrators during both periods were military personnel, but there was greater civilian involvement during 1965 and police actors became more prevalent after 1998 in the Aceh conflict. Comparing the prevalence of forms of SGBV used during the 1965 genocide and the Aceh conflict demonstrates the stability rather than variability of methods adopted by the Indonesian security services as part of their counterinsurgency tactics over time.

 

First published: 29 August 2024

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