IN the middle of 1968, three years after the failed coup attempt, there was nothing out of the ordinary at the Maron river, South Blitar. But the Brawijaya Military Command (Kodam Brawijaya) troops were mystified. The trail of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members they were pursuing always ended at the river.

The army suspected that they were hiding in rubas or underground dwellings, or hiding in caves in the bowels of the earth. A platoon wa