Story highlights Panel finds Indonesia responsible for crimes against humanity

The report estimates that over 400,000 people were murdered in 1965 anti-communist purges

(CNN) An international panel of judges has concluded that Indonesia's mass killings of 1965 were crimes against humanity, and that the United States, United Kingdom and Australia were all complicit in the crimes.

Their report estimates that 400,000 to 500,000 people -- believed associated with the communist party, were killed by military deaths squads, but indicates that official secrecy around these numbers makes the actual figure hard to gauge.

The panel, presided over by head judge Zak Yacoob, a former South African Constitutional Court Justice, held a four-day hearing in the Hague in November of last year, where they heard over 20 witnesses, some of whom gave evidence behind a screen to protect their identity.

In their damning report issued Wednesday, the judges listed a number of allegations which they found to be well founded; including inhumane, ruthless torture, unjustifiable imprisonment and "forced labor that might well have amounted to enslavement."

The panel also found evidence of systematic sexual violence, political persecution and exile, and disappearances of thousands who were thought not to support the Suharto dictatorship with "sufficient fervor."

Read More