Republic of Maluku Selatan
The Republic of Maluku Selatan (RMS, German Republic of the South Moluccas , also South Moluccas-Ambon ) was a state proclaimed in 1950 by the Christian population of the Moluccas , which was finally conquered by Indonesian troops in 1955. It consisted of the approximately 150 islands and archipelagos in the Banda Sea . Larger islands and archipelagos are Ambon , Aru Islands , Babar , Buru , Damar , Kei Islands , Leti , Seram , Tanimbar Islands and Wetar . The approximately one million inhabitants of the southern Moluccas are mostly Christian Melanesians . Muslims also live here .
history
The population of the South Moluccas was more on the side of the colonial rulers during the Dutch colonial era. She had adopted the Christian faith and Dutch customs. A considerable number of the southern Moluccas served in the Dutch colonial army KNIL . They were regarded as highly motivated soldiers who were absolutely loyal to the Dutch government, which earned them the derogatory Malay name Belanda Hitam ("Black Dutch"). After 1945 these troops supported the newly installed colonial power. They also supported the Dutch in the struggle of the Dutch against the Javanese "Liberation Army". With the emergence of independent Indonesia from the former Dutch East Indies , efforts were quickly made to strengthen the central government, as a result of which several areas of the country developed aspirations to secession . The Republic of Maluku Selatan was proclaimed on April 25, 1950 after attempts by the UN Commission for Indonesia (UNCI) and the Netherlands to mediate were unsuccessful.
The attempt at secession was suppressed by the Indonesian army by force of arms. Indonesian troops attacked in July 1950, occupied the capital Ambon in November 1950 and conquered the entire Republic of Maluku Selatan by 1955. As a result, the Dutch had to carry out a mass evacuation of their colonial soldiers and their families.
After the military defeat, remnants of the RMS sympathizers withdrew to the island of Seram in 1954 under the then President Christiaan Robbert Steven Soumokil . Soumokil was captured by the Indonesian army on December 2, 1962. He was tried in a military tribunal in Jakarta and sentenced to death. He was executed on April 12, 1966.
A government in exile of the RMS under President Johan Manusama was formed in the Netherlands. He was succeeded by Frans Tutuhatunewa and in 2010 John Wattilete .
Tensions between Christians and Muslims remained, however. One reason was the settlement of Muslim Malay of the Bugi people from Sulawesi through Indonesia. Since 1998 there have been repeated civil war-like unrest and attacks.
After the suppression of the secession, 80,000 people had already left the crisis area by 2000. Many emigrated to the Netherlands. There, some of them tried unsuccessfully to force the Dutch government in the 1970s to lobby the Indonesian government for the independence of the South Moluccas.
Postage stamps
Although numerous “ stamps ” of the Republic of Maluku Selatan are in circulation in the philatelic trade , most of them date from the period after the secession . The New York stamp dealer Henry Stolow ordered more than 150 different stamps from the Austrian State Printing Office without being authorized to do so. These are so-called fraudulent editions that were not issued by the postal administration in the southern Moluccas. There are also vignettes from a government in exile in the Netherlands and overprints on Indonesian postage stamps, which some philatelists consider to be authentic. Prestigious stamp catalogs do not list the stamps of the Republic of Maluku Selatan.
literature
- Petra Maria Becker: The special ethnic position of the Ambonese in Indonesia in the period before and after achieving political independence . 1994. III, 97 pp.
- Günter Decker: Republic of Maluku Selatan: The Republic of the South Moluccas; Studies and documents on the Ambonese right to self-determination, on federalism and colonialism in Indonesia . Göttingen: Schwartz, 1957. VII, 239 p., Ct. With a summary in English. Language and bibliography pp. (219) - 224.
- Comprehensive literature with an English summary