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the Subversion Law. This apparently can be done repeatedly.
Despite promises made by leading Indonesian officials to, among others, the Dutch parliamentary mission to Indonesia in September 1974, so far only two of those prisoners detained in January 1974 have been brought to trial. Hariman Siregar, a student leader, was sentenced to 6 years' imprisonment on evidence which indicates no more than that he had expressed disagreement with the government's economic and social development policy. Similarly, in the trial of Sjahrir, the prosecution had asked for a sentence of 16 years, on the basis of evidence which shows that the defendant had merely criticized the government's development policy.
Trials for the 1965 prisoners continue at a slow rate: the number of prisoners who have been brought to trial since 1965 is probably about 700. Despite repeated government promises that the courts would expand to cope with more trials, the annual average is still about 100 cases. In April, four women political prisoners were brought to trial and charged with alleged involvement in the 1965 events. The prosecution has demanded life imprisonment for one of the defend- ants and 20 years' imprisonment for the others. The prosecution further asked that there should be no reduction in sentences to allow for the nine years the defendants had already stayed in prison. Two of the prisoners are adopted by AI. This is the first time that leading members of the now-banned women's organiza- tion Gerwani have been brought to trial.
The permanent "resettlement" of Category B prisoners in labour camps is a stated objective of government policy. In September 1974, Indonesian journal- ists were again taken to visit the camps on Buru Island, to which some 150 wives and their children have now been transported. Conditions in prison units on the island are known to be very bad, the food allowed to the prisoners is inadequate and medical care is virtually non-existent.
The government in September 1974 stated that, of all the people arrested in connection with the 1965 events, more than 540,000 have been released. By definition, these people belong to the sub-category C1, and this figure of 540,000 is consonant with previous government claims about overall release figures. As early as January 1972 President Suharto had announced that all Category C prisoners had been released. (He said then that there had been 22,000 remaining prisoners belonging to Category C in the preceding year.)
However, Indonesian Prosecutor-General Ali Said told the Dutch parliament- ary mission in September 1974 that in fact the government was still, in late 1974, trying to implement the release of Category C prisoners. Apparently the territorial military commanders had been given the power to decide on the implementation of release in phases, and individual commanders varied in doing so. According to the Prosecutor-General, it was possible that one territory had reached its target before another, but he maintained that ultimately in 1975 everyone would certainly have solved this problem.
The claimed overall figures of releases of 540,000 indicates the dimensions of the problem in terms of numbers of people waiting to be released. The govern- ment's claims that only 20-35,000 prisoners remain are meant to refer only to prisoners of Categories A and B, since by their own claims, all Category C