As Suharto, Indonesia’s former dictator, lay on his deathbed in a Jakarta hospital on Sunday, 250 elderly people meeting halfway across the capital for a new year celebration were paying more than cursory attention to reports about the ailing 86-year-old retired general.

The death of the one-time leader could have more significant financial and social implications for these pensioners than for most Indonesians. They are among the millions detained without charge or otherwise persecuted in a crackdown the then Lt Gen Suharto initiated following the alleged attempted communist coup in 1965 that catapulted him to power a year later, but left many dead.