The Look of Silence Page #3

Why are they moving?

There's a butterfly inside.

- Was your tooth pulled yesterday?

- Yes.

- Was it loose?

- No.

- How did they pull it?

- With pliers.

And?

And...

And... I don't know.

"Mom!"

"Is that you, Ramli?"

"Have you come back?" "Yes, mom".

"Come here, mom."

I kissed him.

I took off his clothes.

He was covered with blood.

He was ripped open..

"Mom, can I have coffee?"

But when the water boiled,

they came to take him away.

They said they'd

take him to the hospital.

Of course they weren't

taking him to the hospital!

After all, he was

running away from them.

I kissed him...

"Goodbye, mom"...

"They won't let me

come with you, Ramli".

Pray that the killers' children suffer.

Their children and grandchildren.

The people who killed you...

Pray...

...they get killed.

May they suffer...

The ones who killed you...

Your long, wavy hair...

Your soft cheeks...

So pleasing to the eyes...

Are you married yet?

Dad?

How old are you?

- How?

- How old are you??

Now?

Yes. How old are you?

I'm...

- Dad?

- Approximately...

16 or 17 years old.

- You're 16?

- Yes.

I'm 44.

So how can you be 16?

What?

I'm 44.

how can you be 16?

Commander of Snake River death squads

Amir Siahaan

Maybe we can start with...

With what happened?

We exterminated communists for

3 months, day and night.

We'd take them two miles from here.

We'd dig a hole

and bury them alive.

We got lists of the prisoners who

we brought to Snake River.

Every night signed the list.

How many people did you sign off?

About...

...500-600 people.

Because this is...

an international issue,

we should be given...

We should be given a gift.

We should be rewarded

with a trip to America

If not by airplane,

a cruise will do.

We deserve it!

We did this because

America taught us to hate communists.

The wall that separate us, my love...

It's a curse we can't avoid...

I wish it wouldn't come between us.

But please don't go...

Stay with me, my love.

You're a leader in this community...

Yes.

and you're very wealthy.

Did you become rich...

from what you did?

I thank God...

I have many wealthy friends,

who helped me...

because of our heroic struggle.

For example, when I built these

buildings, they donated the materials.

So all your wealth comes

from what you did?

Yes. If you do good, you're rewarded.

You were leader of Komando Aksi

in this region...

so you were responsible for

the mass killing here.

Do people around here know that

of Komando Aksi?

Yes, they do..

The thing is...

I...

My older brother...

He was killed.

Because you...

commanded the killings.

It wasn't really me...

You were responsible,

as leader of Komando Aksi.

There were many Komando Aksi groups.

But you were the top leader.

Komando Aksi was the people united

with the army.

And we had commanders

above us...

and we were protected

by the government.

So you can't say I'm responsible.

Every...

...killer I meet...

None of them feel responsible.

They don't even feel regret...

I don't mean to offend you...

but I think...

you're avoiding

your moral responsibility.

You're trying to wash your hands of it.

Adi, where did your brother live?

Here in your region.

In which village?

In which village?

I'm sorry...

I won't tell you.

What subdistrict?

- I'm sorry...

- Just tell me. It's okay.

Please understand,

I must hide my identity...

because the killers are still

in power...

and still consider themselves heroes.

These days,

subversives are everywhere...

he known communists aren't dangerous.

It's the secret ones

who are dangerous.

Maybe what you're doing now

is a secret communist activity.

If I came to you like this

during the military dictatorship,

what would you have done to me?

You can't imagine

what would have happened.

Under the dictatorship?

When everything was tense?

You can't imagine what

would have happened.

So... Keep going.

Continue with this communist activity.

Keep going.

Mom...

I've been meeting

the people who killed Ramli.

We tried to save Ramli

by bribing them with two cows.

It didn't work

Even if they did those things,

if they felt regret...

we could forgive them.

After all, we're neighbors.

But you don't tell them

you're his brother, do you?

Yes, I do.

Be careful!

They could slip poison in your drink...

so tell them you're fasting.

Be very careful!

They'll send thugs to rip you apart.

What are you trying to do?

Just leave it.

Just bring a butterfly knife.

Or a club wrapped in newspaper.

If them try anything,

hit them in the back of the head.

Right here.

They won't get up again.

It's easy here.

- There's a bone here.

- The spine.

Sometimes you have to chop twice.

- But here's easy.

- The throat.

Keep slitting their throats.

If you chop from behind,

there's no noise.

But when you slit the throat,

there's noise.

And blood sprays out.

- Pretend this is a machete.

- Stab me.

Sorry, sir.

Cut...

Rip off his penis...

Kick... Dead...

That's like Ramli...

We had to cut off his penis.

From behind.

Chopping here.

This happened.

It's history. It's historic!

Wait a moment.

What happened to Ramli?

Film from there.

And you squat here.

I brought a knife...

To make the scene more authentic.

- It's dangerous!

- No, it's fine!

It makes it more authentic.

I should have brought a machete.

So we cut Ramli,

again and again...

and stabbed him like this...

until he looked dead.

Then I pushed him in the river...

He clung to the tree roots,

begging, "Help me!"

So we fished him out,

and killed him by cutting off his penis.

We buried him at Pelintahan...

There's a gravestone now.

Ramli was probably

a good person...

But what could we do?

It was a revolution.

What support did you

have from the army?

They waited at the road, with the truck.

They didn't come down here.

They never came down here.

They called this:

"the people's struggle".

So they kept their distance.

If the army was seen doing this,

the world would be angry.

"The army is killing the communists!"

So to protect their image,

they made it look like...

the people exterminated the communists.

But everybody knows

the army was behind it.

You were chief of

Komando Aksi.

Many people were killed, especially

at Snake River.

Did you order it?

The mass killings were...

the spontaneous action of the people.

The people hated communism.

Komando Aksi picked up the victims

from political prisons...

and with police escort brought

them to Snake River to be killed.

How can you call that "spontaneous"?

You misunderstand me...

Speaker of the regional legislature

M.Y. Basrun.

What I meant by "spontaneous" was

the people's hatred of communism.

Aren't you just saying this because

you're in the legislature?

No, I'm setting the record straight.

I'm not Rambo.

I was Secretary General

of Komando Aksi.

Or is the crime so big

you don't want to admit it?

No, I don't think it's big.

But a million people were killed.

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