Indonesia guilty of genocide

An international panel of judges has concluded that Indonesia's mass killings of 1965 were crimes against humanity, and that the United States, United Kingdom and Australia were all complicit in the crimes.

Their report estimates that 400,000 to 500,000 people -- believed associated with the communist party, were killed by military deaths squads, but indicates that official secrecy around these numbers makes the actual figure hard to gauge, reports CNN.

The panel, presided over by head judge Zak Yacoob, a former South African Constitutional Court Justice, held a four-day hearing in the Hague in November of last year, where they heard over 20 witnesses, some of whom gave evidence behind a screen to protect their identity.

In their damning report issued Wednesday, the judges listed a number of allegations which they found to be well founded; including inhumane, ruthless torture, unjustifiable imprisonment and "forced labor that might well have amounted to enslavement."

Meanwhile, Jakarta yesterday rejected the findings of an international panel of judges that declared Indonesia had committed crimes against humanity in anti-communist killings during the 1960s in which it claimed the US, Britain and Australia were complicit, reports AFP.

Foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said Indonesia was under no obligation to follow the recommendations of the tribunal as they were "not legally binding".

Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan criticised its conclusions, saying the killings were "none of their business, they are not our superiors and Indonesia has its own system".

A spokesman for Australia's foreign affairs ministry said the court was "not a formal international court or tribunal, but a human rights NGO" and that Canberra rejected "any suggestion that it was complicit in any way in those events of 50 years ago".

The British embassy in Jakarta declined to respond to the accusation of complicity in the killings and the American legation could not immediately be reached for comment.