the balance of power was shifted in favour of anti-communists in december 1965, when personnel from both the army para-commando regiment and 5th brawijaya military region units arrived in bali after having carried out killings in java. led by suharto's principal troubleshooter, sarwo edhie wibowo who with javanese military commanders permitted balinese squads (led by anwar congo, adi zulkadry, safit pardede) to kill until reined in. in contrast to central java where the army encouraged people to kill the "gestapu", bali's eagerness to kill was so tremendous and spontaneous that, having provided logistic support initially, the army eventually had to step in to prevent chaos. sukarno's choice of bali's provincial governor, suteja, was recalled from office and accused of preparing a communist uprising, and his relatives were tracked down and killed. a series of killings similar to those in central and east java were led by black-shirted pni youth. for several months, militia death squads went through villages capturing suspects and taking them away. hundreds of houses belonging to communists and their relatives were burnt down within one week of the reprisal crusade, with occupants being butchered as they ran from their homes. an early estimate suggested that 50,000 people, including women and children, were killed in this operation alone. the population of several balinese villages were halved in the last months of 1965. all the chinese shops in the towns of singaraja and denpasar were destroyed and many of their owners who were alleged to have financially supported the "gestapu" killed. between december 1965 and early 1966, an estimated 80,000 balinese were killed, roughly 5% of the island's population at the time, and proportionally more than anywhere else in indonesia. most of the people killed had little to do with communist party or other allegations thrown at them.