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(CNN)Their memories are those of old men -- sometimes wandering, sometimes imprecise -- but they clearly remember the fear.
"I was just so scared at that time," says Karto Wiyono, who survived one of Indonesia's darkest periods.
It was October 1965, and Wiyono and his neighbor Widji Thukul were farmers in a small village in Central Java.
Two men arrived at their front doors, one in a military uniform, one in civilian clothing. The men asked to come to the local cemetery and dig holes in the ground.
Soldiers arrived escorting a large group of men with their hands tied, the farmers says. They aren't sure how many prisoners, maybe 200 or more. Then the killing started.
"They pushed them so that they jumped into the hole alive. Then in the hole the soldiers shot at them. Then we as the villagers buried them," Wiyono says.
The farmers are the only two still alive among the 30 villagers who buried the victims that night. Their fading memories are evidence of mass killings that took place across the country.
Mass atrocities
In the wake of a failed coup in the autumn of 1965, Indonesia's military launched a systemic campaign to purge communists from the country.
According to multiple eye witness accounts and investigations by human rights groups, mass atrocities followed that Indonesia hid from the world.
Soldiers, police and local militias arrested, tortured and killed members of the communist party and their families, as well as teachers, labor activists and many ethnic Chinese.
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The Hague tribunal recommended the Indonesian government apologize to victims and their families, investigate the crimes against humanity, and ensure any survivors receive appropriate compensation..
However, within Indonesia, there is no serious talk of putting anyone on trial and no one in power has ever officially apologized.
Authorities are still nervous about even proceeding with exhumations, according to Andreas Harsono, Indonesia Researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Some have called for a truth and reconciliation commission, like in South Africa, but Harsono insists Indonesia's powerful military only wants half of that deal.
"It is going to be a fake reconciliation without truth telling," he says.
Untung and the victims he represents waited 50 years for a formal meeting with the government to ask for answers. Six months after he handed over his list of suspected mass graves, he believes the government has made no serious effort to exhume them.
He's still sending them letters asking for an explanation.
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