Konfrontasi
Malaysia
| date | 1963 - 1966 |
|---|---|
| place | Malaysia |
| Casus Belli | Establishment of Malaysia |
| output | Status quo ante |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| losses | |
|
590 dead |
114 dead |
The Konfrontasi ( Indonesian / Malaysian for confrontation ) was a conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia that lasted from 1963 to 1966. The cause of the conflict was the establishment of the State of Malaysia in 1963, which was not accepted by the then Indonesian President Sukarno . In contrast, the Commonwealth of Nations , in particular the United Kingdom , Australia and New Zealand , supported the young state of Malaysia militarily with reference to the Anglo-Malayan Defense Agreement . The end of the Konfrontasi came in 1966 when, after the massacre in Indonesia in 1965–1966, Suharto gradually de facto took over power in Indonesia.
background
Under the name of Dutch East Indies, Indonesia had been a colony of the Netherlands since 1800 . The territories of Malaysia and the Sultanate of Brunei, on the other hand, were part of the British Empire in various forms . During the Second World War , both the Dutch and British possessions were occupied by the Japanese Empire .
In the state formation phase that began after the end of the war, Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, but had to defend it by force in the Dutch-Indonesian War in 1947/48 against the Dutch , who were hoping to return to colonial relations. Britain, on the other hand, voluntarily gave up its colonial claim. A first step was the declaration of independence of the Malaya Federation on August 31, 1957 . The three areas of Sarawak , Sabah and Brunei on Borneo and the island city of Singapore on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula initially remained in British hands, but their association with the Malaya Federation was already being considered. An official proposal for this endeavor was made public on May 27, 1962.
Sukarno, the President of Indonesia, initially signaled his support for this project; his Foreign Minister Subandrio announced in October 1962 that Indonesia had no territorial claims on the British parts of Borneo.
Coup in Brunei
On December 8, 1962, there was an attempted coup in Brunei . A militia of around 4,000 men attacked police and military stations in Brunei and tried to storm Brunei's parliament, which had existed since 1959, and to penetrate the Sultan of Brunei. Their plan was to convince the Sultan not to integrate the three areas on Borneo as individual states into the Federation of Malaysia, but to form a common state in North Borneo in order to protect themselves from political dominance by the Malay Peninsula. They also attacked police stations in Sarawak and Sabah. The British army dispatched units from Singapore, which repulsed the militia by December 17th. Indonesia's attitude towards Malaysia changed abruptly after this attempted coup. For reasons not yet fully understood, Indonesia now categorically rejected the formation of Malaysia. This event also had lasting consequences for Brunei, as it now finally decided not to agree to either a merger with the Malaya Federation or the formation of a state of North Borneo, but to remain under British rule as an autonomous protectorate.
Beginning of the confrontation
In January 1963 the Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio officially declared the Indonesian rejection of the state of Malaysia. If Malaysia were to be established, its country would pursue a policy of confrontation. The name of the conflict is derived from this saying. President Sukarno said later that year that he would " gobble up Malaysia raw" ( Ganyang Malaysia ).
The Indonesian government sent troops to the Indonesian part of Borneo in January 1963 to provide military training to civilians. Some of these civilians were remnants of the coup militia from Brunei, but mostly ethnic Chinese from Sarawak and Sabah who had fled the British across the border into Indonesia because of their communist attitudes. The first 300 militias were trained by the Indonesian elite unit RPKAD, later known as the Kopassus , and began in mid-April 1963 with regular border crossings and attacks on Malaysian and British positions. The first operation was an attack on a police station in southern Sarawak, in which a British soldier was killed. The militia group had its greatest success in September 1963, just before the establishment of Malaysia, when five British soldiers were killed in an attack on a British outpost in central Sarawak. However, these very selective actions had little effect on the formation of Malaysia and could not prevent the establishment of the state of Malaysia from being officially announced on September 16, 1963. The next day, Malaysia cut all diplomatic relations with Indonesia.
course
After the establishment of Malaysia, Indonesia increased the intensity of its actions. Units of the Indonesian marine infantry were moved to the Sabah border, where they operated alongside the former coup plotters from Brunei while the Indonesian army attacked Sarawak. The successes of the operations varied, but never took on a dimension that seriously jeopardized the very existence of Malaysia.
Sukarno did not react to threats from the US to punish Indonesia with economic sanctions if it did not stop its attacks on Malaysia and instead ordered an intensification of the confrontation. Australia and New Zealand sent troops to Malaysia. Small groups of the Indonesian military repeatedly invaded Malaysian territory and fought against Commonwealth troops. A high point of the confrontation was a series of combat jumps by Indonesian paratroopers in the Malaysian state of Johor from August to October 1964, which caused the conflict to jump from Borneo to the Malay Peninsula. In December 1964, an Australian minesweeper engaged in an exchange of fire with an Indonesian warship off the coast of Singapore.
The End
The end of the confrontation came with domestic political developments in Indonesia that had little to do with the conflict with Malaysia. In September 1965, a coup attempt against Sukarno took place in Jakarta , which failed, but in the medium term resulted in Sukarno's overthrow. Suharto, general in the Indonesian military , had put down the coup and at the same time secured enough influence for himself that he was able to drive Sukarno out of office and become president of Indonesia himself.
The confrontation was initially little affected by these developments, so the military here continued to work with communist Chinese, while in the rest of the country there was just a politically motivated genocide against the Chinese of Indonesia . However, since Suharto was of the opinion that the conflict with Malaysia offered few advantages for Indonesia, he worked towards an end to the Konfrontasi. Secret peace talks between the Commonwealth and Indonesia had been taking place since May 1966, and a final peace treaty was signed by Indonesian and Malaysian delegates on August 11, 1966 in Jakarta .
See also
literature
- Harold James, Denis Sheil-Small: The Undeclared War. The Story of the Indonesian Confrontation, 1962-1966. Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa NJ 1971, ISBN 0-85052-080-0 .
- Nick van der Bijl: Confrontation. The War with Indonesia. 1962-1966. Pen & Sword Books Military, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 978-1-8441-5595-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Australian involvement in Southeast Asian conflicts. Confrontation - Causes and Description
- ^ The UK Statute Law Database: Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957 (c. 60)
- ↑ No.10760: Agreement relating to Malaysia (pdf) In: United Nations Treaty Collection . United Nations. July 1963. Archived from the original on August 14, 2011. Retrieved on July 29, 2010.
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , p. 92.
- ^ Conboy (2003): Kopassus , p. 93.
- ↑ a b United Nations Treaty Series No. 8029, Manila Accord between Philippines, Federation of Malaya and Indonesia (31 JULY 1963) ( Memento from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b United Nations Treaty Series No. 8809, Agreement relating to the implementation of the Manila Accord ( Memento of July 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , p. 93.
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , pp. 93-94.
- ^ History of Malaysia: 1963-2000 . Helicon Publishing Ltd , 2000, archived from the original on August 29, 2010 ; accessed on June 2, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , pp. 94-95.
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , p. 96 ff.
- ^ The Indonesian Confrontation (Konfrontasi) (1963-1966): Australia's Involvement . In: Australian involvement in South-East Asian Conflicts . Department of Veterans' Affairs , 2009, archived from the original October 24, 2009 ; accessed on June 2, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Ken Conboy: Kopassus. Inside Indonesia's Special Forces. Equinox Publishing, Jakarta 2003, ISBN 979-958988-6 , pp. 160-161.