We have detected 2,700 files. We have received some of the digital archives, but some are still closedDenpasar, Bali (ANTARA) - The Indonesian National Archives (ANRI) requested the US government, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to return 2,700 files on Indonesian historical events during the year 1965.
"We have detected 2,700 files. We have received some of the digital archives, but some are still closed," ANRI head Imam Gunarto stated here on Friday.
At the electronic-based government system event held by the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry in Denpasar, Bali, Gunarto remarked that some of the archives had been disclosed by the US National Archives.
Some archives from the US Embassy in Indonesia and the US State Department were also disclosed to provide complete sources and information of the past.
Gunarto expected that Indonesians can fully understand a historical event through complete historical sources from the archives.
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He noted that the ANRI does not have the duty of rectifying a historical event but is tasked with collecting historical sources that can be used as study objects for researchers and historians, for instance, the September 30th Movement in 1965.
"(This is) so that people do not understand only parts of an event. If knowing only part of it, the story is cut into pieces and not according to reality. The more the sources, the better," he stated.
Gunarto said his side continues to communicate with relevant agencies in the United States, both in writing and virtual meetings, to bring home important archives of Indonesian history in 1965.
"We are in constant communication, and if needed, we will come there. The coordination with the United States has been going intensively," he remarked.
Meanwhile, on the same occasion, Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas stated that fully understanding historical events is important to set history straight.
He noted that new data related to history can be put together to increase public insight.
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Translator: Dewa W, Kenzu
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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