THE white-haired woman with wrinkled face fell silent, gazing emptily into space. It was Idul Fitri 2009, the 81st Lebaran, which marked the end of the Ramadan fasting month, in her life. Without her husband, she gathered together on that day with her seven children and 12 grandchildren.

For more than the past 40 years the 81-year-old Soetarni had no longer been with Njoto, her husband and a leading member of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Pa