Sukarno’s reaction to the killings was both resignation and desperation. Though he wasn’t getting full reports from around the country, he knew violence was taking place, and seemed overwhelmed by the avalanche of anticommunist propaganda. He told one group of officers and journalists, “Over and over it’s the same thing… razors, razors, razors, razors, razors, a grave for a thousand people, a grave for a thousand people… over and over again, the same thing!”33 He urged restraint, entirely ineffectively, as Suharto’s forces literally hacked away at the number of people on the left wing of
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