Almost every Thursday for the past 18 years, Bedjo Untung has joined a small group of protesters in front of the Indonesian presidential palace come rain or shine. The group want accountability for crimes under the late dictator Suharto — crimes in which Bedjo was himself a victim.
In 1965, at the age of 17, Bedjo was arrested on suspicion of being a communist in an anti-communist purge by the Indonesian military led by Suharto. He was jailed for nine years without due process, tortured and placed in various forced labour camps across the country, along with millions of others, according to rights groups, who say at least 500,000 were killed.
When Bedjo heard in November that President Prabowo Subianto was going to honour Suharto posthumously as a national hero, he was outraged.