January 2012 | Garut Cheater

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Arafat and CIA help Shinbet snatch 8 from Ramallah

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:10:00 PM

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The Middle East conflict is not a battle between good and evil but between right and right

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:09:00 PM

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Twists and turns of standoff

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:08:00 PM

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Truths about the Six-Day War: U.S. CIA & military secretly helped Israelis

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:05:00 PM

CIA & military secretly helped Israelis,

Mid-East Realities, 11 June 1997

MER - Most of the lies and distortions about the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel occupied the Golan, West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, remain today 30 years later.

The reality is that Israel encouraged and then took advantage of that war for many political, economic, and territorial reasons. In the following column by Prof. Tanya Reinhart, she puts this into perspective in so far as Israel's attack on Syria and capture of the Golan in the last days of the war.

What history still does not properly record are:

Israel never was in military danger, the Israeli Army was always aware they could overpowered all the Arab armies.
The US CIA was greatly involved in providing Israel intelligence information that greatly helped them win the war in such a short time.
US military personnel, disguised as civilians and on secret missions to which they were sworn to secrecy, helped the Israelis with specific technical and intelligence-gathering operations.

There is also a considerable likelihood that in the years following the war the American CIA, cooperating with the Israeli Mossad, targeted Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, just as was the case with other anti-American leaders in other parts of the world. Nasser's death may have been one of the CIA's greatest and most secret successes. Recent revelations in Washington of destroyed CIA files dealing with foreign assassinations in the 50s and 60s adds a further dimension to this serious possibility.]

Dayan admits Israel attacked Syria in land grab

By Prof. Tanya Reinhart, translated from Yediot Aharonot, 6 May 1997

In June, it would be 30 years to the war of 1967 - the war that brought about the occupation. Governments have changed from Labor to Likud and back several times since then, and what has changed?

Yediot Aharonot of April 27 has published an 1976 interview with Moshe Dayan (which was not previously published). Dayan, who was the defense minister in 1967, explains there what led, then, to the decision to attack Syria. In the collective consciousness of the period, Syria was conceived as a serious threat to the security of Israel, and a constant initiator of aggression towards the residents of northern Israel. But according to Dayan, this is 'bull-shit' - Syria was not a threat to Israel before 67. Just drop it - he says as an answer to a question about the northern residences - I know how at least 80% of all the incidents with Syria started. We were sending a tractor to the demilitarized zone and we knew that the Syrians will shoot. If they did not shoot, we would instruct the tractor to go deeper, till the Syrians finally got upset and start shooting. Then we employed artillery, and later also the air-force... I did that... and Itzhak Rabin did that, when he was there (as commander of the Northern front, in the early sixties).

And what has led Israel to provoke Syria? According to Dayan, this was the greediness for the land - the idea that it is possible to grab a piece of land and keep it, until the enemy will get tired and give it to us. The Syrian land was, as he says, particularly tempting, since, unlike Gaza and the West bank it was not heavily populated.

The 67 war has brought the big chance to grab the land, and along with the land, the water of the of the Jordan Riverheads. Dayan insists that the decision to attack Syria was not motivated by security reasons: You do not attack the enemy because he is a bastard, but because he threatens you, and the Syrians in the fourth day of the war were not threatening us. He adds that the initiative of Colonel David Elazar to open the Syrian front was assisted by a delegation sent to prime-minister Eshkol by the Northern kibbutz's, who did not even try to hide their greediness to that land.

In 1973, the Israeli society has paid, for the first time, a heavy price for the occupation - in the 'Yom Kippur' war. The interview with Dayan was held three years after the defeat, and in that atmosphere, he explains that the decision to attack Syria was a mistake that will disable, in the future, peace with Syria.

One could infer from Dayan's words that he would have, perhaps, supported, withdrawal from the Golan heights, but Rabin, his partner to the road of the Labor, has never changed his skin. At the first period of his term as prime-minister, many believed that he is seeking an agreement with Syria. But behind the halo of our saviour the peace-maker, there was the same land-greedy commander who sent the tractors to provoke the Syrians in the early sixties.

In the tradition of all his predecessors, Rabin used the tactics of dragging negotiations: He agreed to discuss everything (the location of inspection points, the dates of opening embassies) except for the one issue that Syria was interested in - which lands Israel is willing to give up in the Golan. While Rabin's one hand was spreading rumors about secret agreements, to pacify public opinion, his other hand was pouring unprecedented budgets for developing the Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights. Apartments previously frozen were sold to anyone interested, and huge amounts of money were invested in developing foundation work and industry. All Netanyahu had to do is pick the fruits.

Thirty years after, the land-greedy are still stealing and appropriating it wherever possible - in the Golan heights, as in the West Bank. What we are left with are the words of Yifat Kastiel, whose twin sister was murdered recently in Wadi Kelet: They fight here all the time over pieces of land. But what importance could the land have, when the people who live here are so miserable?

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USS Liberty: Did Israel commit one war crime to hide another?

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:03:00 PM

By James M. Ennes, Jr.,
The Washington Post Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1996

Washington Report readers know the story well. In 1967 on the fourth day of the Six Day War, the armed forces of Israel attacked the American intelligence ship USS Liberty for 90 minutes in international waters in broad daylight following several hours of close, low-level reconnaissance. Thirty-four men died, 171 were hurt, and the ship was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped.

The government of Israel has lied about the circumstances ever since, telling a story markedly different from that told by American survivors. Congress has refused to question Israel's demonstrably false account, even though the State Department's own analysis finds the Israeli story to be untrue.

Yet the most pressing question remaining from that infamy is not whether the attack was deliberate. That was settled long ago for most reasonable people. The question is why Israel risked its cozy relationship with America by killing American seaman on the high seas.

Indeed, spokesmen for Israel use that question in Israel's defense. Why, they ask, would Israel risk alienating its American friends?

So why did Israel attack? Intelligence analysts and others have long supposed that Israel attacked to prevent the ship from reporting the impending invasion of the Golan Heights, then imminent despite cease fire pleas by the United States. Israel's defenders reject that explanation.

Recent reports in the Israeli and Egyptian press suggest another powerful possibility.

According to eyewitness accounts by Israeli officers and journalists, the Israeli Army - the army that claims to hold itself to a higher moral standard than other armies - executed as many as 1,000 Arab prisoners during the 1967 war.

Historian Gabby Bron wrote in the Yediot Ahronot in Israel that he witnessed Israeli troops executing Egyptian prisoners on the morning of June 8, 1967, in the Sinai town of El Arish.

Bron reported that he saw about 150 Egyptian POWs being held at the El Arish airport where they were sitting on the ground, densely crowded together with their hands held on the back of their necks. Every few minutes, Bron writes, Israeli soldiers would escort an Egyptian POW from the group to a hearing conducted by two men in Israeli army uniforms. Then the man would be taken away, given a spade, and forced to dig his own grave.

I watched as (one) man dug a hole for about 15 minutes, Bron wrote. Afterwards, the (Israeli military) policeman told him to throw the shovel away, and then one of them leveled an Uzi at him and shot two short bursts, each of three or four bullets.

Bron says he witnessed about ten such executions, until the grave was filled. Then an Israeli Colonel threatened him with a revolver, forcing him to leave the area.

USS Liberty was nearby

As those executions were underway, America's most sophisticated intelligence platform, USS Liberty, was less than 13 miles from El Arish.

We were close enough to see the town mosque with the naked eye. With binoculars we could make out individual buildings and might have seen the executions if we had looked in the right place.

Could our operators have heard voice radio messages revealing these killings? Did senior Israeli officers sanction the murders, or did they learn of them? How would they have reacted to the knowledge that USS Liberty was nearby and might have heard incriminating radio traffic?

Would they have been desperate enough to attack an American ship?

The Liberty attack was a war crime

The attack on USS Liberty was itself a war crime. US Navy Commander Walter Jacobsen, a Navy Legal Officer then doing graduate work at George Washington University, conducted an extensive legal analysis of the attack.

His conclusion, reported in the Winter, 1986, Naval Law Review, was that several aspects of the attack violated provisions of the Geneva Conventions -- war crimes. Specifically, Commander Jacobsen found that the attack was not legally justified, that it constituted an act of aggression under the United Nations Charter, that the use of unmarked aircraft, the wanton destruction of life rafts in the water, the jamming of international radio distress frequencies, and the failure of the torpedo boat commanders to render immediate assistance to a disabled and helpless enemy were all violations of international law.

US refusal to investigate violates Geneva Conventions

For years, USS Liberty survivors have asked Members of Congress to investigate the circumstances of the attack.

The Israeli version is untrue. We did fly a flag. We did identify ourselves. We were in international waters. They did not stop firing after seeing our flag as they claim, but continued to fire for another 40 minutes. The attack lasted 75 minutes and was not brief or accidental as Israel claims. We did not attempt to hide or escape when detected, as Israeli has charged. These things are easy to prove.

More important are the war crimes discussed by Commander Jacobsen. These things should have been investigated in 1967. Yet U.S. officials have ignored the offenses for 29 years, refusing to investigate or even to acknowledge them.

That refusal is itself a crime. The United States, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, is under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed violations of the conventions, and to see that violators are brought to trial.

There are no exceptions. War crimes reported to government officials must be investigated and perpetrators tried.

Yet even this is ignored by U.S. officials. Liberty survivors for many years have reported the crimes committed against us and have requested an appropriate investigation. Despite the law, our complaints are ignored. No investigation of these charges has ever been held.

Recently Liberty's Joe Meadors, a former president and chairman of the Liberty Veterans Association, has filed formal complaints with the House and Senate Ethics Committees against members who have ignored our complaints.

To no surprise, these complaints, too, are being ignored.

Navy Refusal to investigate violates Navy Regulations

When the Liberty was attacked, Captain Joseph Tully in the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga received the ship's call for help and immediately sent jet aircraft to her assistance. Tully's jets were recalled almost immediately by orders from Washington. As a result, American jet fighter support was withheld for more than 90 minutes. By then the damage was done and 34 men were dead or dying.

Had those aircraft been sent, they would probably have arrived before the torpedo boats started their part of the attack. At least 25 lives could have been saved.

We survivors have tried for 29 years to learn why we were denied the immediate air support that we were promised in case of trouble. There are no answers. The Navy still will not even admit that help was not sent, even though one of the aircraft carrier commanders has offered to testify that he was forbidden to help us.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice, the body of law that governs every military person, provides that Any person subject to this chapter who before or in the presence of the enemy . . . does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to . . . troops, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces . . . when engaged in battle . . . shall be punished by death or such punishment as a court martial may direct.

That provision was clearly violated when Liberty's air support was withheld. Yet the Navy will not even admit that we were not defended.

George Orwell suggested in 1945 that some animals are more equal than other animals. Some countries, too, it would seem.

James Ennes retired from the Navy in 1978 as a lieutenant commander after 27 years of enlisted and commissioned service. He was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty on the day of the attack. His book on the subject, Assault on the Liberty (Random House, 1980), is a Notable Naval Book selection of the U.S. Naval Institute and was editors choice when reviewed in The Washington Post.

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The Kurdish Struggle For National Self-Determination

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:02:00 PM

By Jack Barnes, the Militant,
Vol. 63, no 9, 8 March 1999

The following selection on the Kurdish struggle for national self-determination is excerpted from The Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq, the lead article in issue no. 7 of the Marxist magazine New International. The article is based on a talk given by Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes on March 30, 1991, just weeks after the U.S.-organized slaughter of the Gulf war in Iraq. It is copyright (c) 1991 by 408 Printing and Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission.

The U.S. rulers' military victory put an international spotlight on another unresolved fight for national self- determination in the region - that of the Kurdish people. Prior to the Gulf war the Kurdish struggle had largely been in retreat, having been dealt repeated defeats over the past half century by the Iraqi, Turkish, Iranian, and Syrian ruling classes, with the complicity of Washington, London, Paris, and Moscow. The consequences of the Gulf war have now posed Kurdish national self-determination more sharply than at any time since the close of World War II and the years just after the 1958 revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Iraq.

Some twenty million to thirty million Kurds are divided between southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran, as well as a small region in the southern part of the USSR. An independent Kurdish republic came into existence in northern Iran after the establishment of a workers' and peasants' government in neighboring Azerbaijan in December 1945.(1)

Although the Kurdish republic was crushed by the Iranian monarchy a year later, the Kurds continued their struggle during the decades that followed. The U.S. rulers have alternately doled out aid with an eyedropper to Kurdish nationalist groups, and then abruptly cut off this backing, depending on Washington's shifting relations with regimes in the area, especially Baghdad and Tehran.

The Kurdish people took advantage of the weakening of the Saddam Hussein regime as a result of the war to press forward their struggle once again, holding many villages and towns - including the major city of Kirkuk - for a week or more in March. Baghdad used helicopter gunships and heavy armor to crush the Kurdish rebellion with ruthless brutality, causing two million or more Kurdish refugees to attempt to cross the Turkish and Iranian borders.

As we discuss here today, the U.S. and European imperialist powers have declared a temporary refugee enclave for the Kurds north of the thirty-sixth parallel in northern Iraq near the Turkish border. Washington is sending troops, Special Forces units, into northern Iraq to function as what amounts to little more than a police force for Saddam Hussein. Along with Turkish soldiers, the U.S. troops are forcing the refugees out of Turkey and off nearby mountains into ill- provisioned and barren transit camps. Washington's aim is to push the Kurds back to the towns and villages from which they fled.

At best, this enclave will be the temporary equivalent of an Indian reservation in the United States or one of the many blocked-off areas near Israel's borders containing Palestinian refugee camps. The imperialists share a common interest with the capitalist regimes in Baghdad, Ankara, Damascus, and Tehran in ensuring that such a haven for the Kurds is short- lived. All of them know that any more-or-less-permanent Kurdish area can only breed aspirations for more land that is justly theirs, as well as potential intifadas among young generations of Kurdish fighters. Bush will have nightmares about setting up a very large reservation, nightmares about a modern-day Geronimo leading a new breakout.(2)

This is another of the unresolved and uncontrollable social forces in the Gulf that has been unleashed, rather than contained, by the results of Washington's war against Iraq.

As we continue campaigning against imperialism and war today, we must call not only for All foreign troops out of Iraq! but also Open the U.S. borders! - to the Kurdish people and to all Iraqi and Kuwaiti refugees fleeing the Baghdad regime and the al-Sabah monarchy.

For the ruling class in Turkey, which joined Washington in the war against Iraq in hopes of winning trade favors and military aid and hardware, the results so far - nearly one million refugees pounding at its borders -are nothing short of a catastrophe. (The Turkish regime is also suffering major economic blows from honoring the continuing blockade, which shuts off Turkey's oil pipeline with Iraq and the resulting flow of funds into the state treasury.) These events have brought to greater world attention once again the Turkish rulers' own suppression of the Kurdish people, until recently legally denied the right even to speak their own language in Turkey - and they are still denied the right to read, write, or be educated in Kurdish.

Above all, the Kurdish people have come to the center stage in world politics as never before, not primarily as victims, but as courageous and determined fighters for national rights....

The U.S. rulers did not anticipate the scope of the rebellions by Kurds and other oppressed toilers in Iraq, nor the bloody suppression unleashed by Saddam Hussein and its embarrassing media results at home. But the most important point is that such matters were never part of Washington's calculations one way or the other. The U.S. rulers have no interest in the national rights of the Kurds. The depth of the national pride and determination of the Kurdish people - like that of the Palestinians and other fighting peoples - is a mystery to them; it will always catch them by surprise. To the contrary, Washington's interest is in forging stronger ties of imperialist domination with a subjugated Iraqi government and with other historic butchers of the Kurds: the Turkish government, the Syrian government, and, to the degree possible, the Iranian government.

1. The Kurdish regime held power for nearly a year. When the Iranian monarchy moved to crush the two governments and reoccupy the areas in December 1946, the Soviet government opposed the resistance efforts by the Azerbaijani and Kurdish peoples. This led to a split in the Azerbaijani leadership, with the majority following Stalin's dictate and calling off armed resistance. The Stalinist leadership in Azerbaijan capitulated without a struggle. The fall of the Azerbaijani government quickly led to the fall of the Kurdish republic. Kurdish forces, however, organized a fighting retreat.

The retreat was organized by Mustapha Barzani, the military commander of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, who had earlier led Kurds from Iraq to join the republic in northern Iran led by Ghazi Muhammad. Fighting the shah's army, they crossed the border into Iraq, where they came under attack by the armed forces of the Iraqi monarchy backed by British imperialism. Barzani then led his forces in a fighting retreat through Turkey and Iran into the Soviet Union. They remained there until the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in the July 1958 revolution when they returned to Iraqi Kurdistan and continued the struggle for self-determination.

2. Geronimo, an Apache warrior, was an outstanding leader of the struggle by the American Indian peoples against the U.S. government's genocidal policies and dispossession of Indian lands and rights. In May 1885 he and his followers broke out of the San Carlos reservation in Arizona, where they had been driven by U.S. government forces. They then went to Mexico, where they were ultimately pursued by five thousand U.S. soldiers, a force equivalent to nearly one-third of the U.S. army's combat strength, as well as thousands of Mexican army troops. Geronimo and a few dozen followers finally surrendered in September 1886. The entire band was then deported to Fort Marion, Florida.

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The History Of Kurdistan

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 7:01:00 PM

The PKK Party Program (1998),
Chapter Two: Kurdish Society

In our country, Kurdistan, one of the most fertile regions of the earth, humanity for the first time in its history began to cultivate agriculture, have a settled life, and to raise livestock. Various tribes have lived in this region since long, long ago, and they began a specific development towards culture. For these reasons, this region has played the role of the cradle of civilization for a long time. The region possessed many raw materials, as well as means of connection and transportation to other civilizations. This beneficial situation also had its disadvantages, however, since our country has also been a battleground for wars since long ago. During such developments, entire tribes were either wiped out or forced to live under occupation.

The efforts by our people to settle in our country began when the Medes arrived on the stage of history in about 1000 B.C. The Medes, who stemmed from the Aryan branch of Indo-Europeans, waged a centuries-long war against their neighbors, the Persians and the Assyrians, in order to be able to settle down in this country and expand.

The Medes, after first defeating the Persians and then overcoming the Assyrians in 612 B.C., formed the largest empire of that time period. The boundaries of the Median Empire encompassed all of what is today known as Kurdistan. The long years of their struggle gave rise to a national consciousness, while at the same time developing their freedom loving character. They adopted the cultures of the various tribes living in the region into their own culture, and they played a leading role in the formation of our national values during the development of this new culture.

The Median Empire, which eventually took on the character of a despotic and enslaving empire, was defeated by the Persians in the year 550 B.C. From this date on, our people began a phase of permanent occupation and subjection to tyranny. From the 6th century B.C. until the 7th century A.D., when Arab troops invaded and took over the region, our people lived under the occupation of different enslaving empires. Persians, Greeks and Macedonians, Armenians, Romans, Byzantines, and others either chose Kurdistan as the battlefield for their struggles or, in the event of a victory, subjected our people to their rule. In either case, there was always a great loss of life, and our people were forced to live in the most mountainous and harsh regions of the country. This condition led to us forming an internalized, tribal society. During the feudal period, the occupation and tyranny which our people were subjected to increased. The victory of the Arabs in the 7th century was especially bloody. The Islamic ideology took over from national development, and in this way our people were alienated from their own values and were thereby hindered in their national development. This was an important factor which led to our people remaining under the control of foreign, feudal powers.

The period of Arab dominance and all of its oppression lasted until the 10th century. At that point, it began to weaken. The lack of another powerful occupying force resulted in a period of beneficial conditions, during which our people could again develop their national unity. The result of these beneficial conditions were the formation of various Kurdish feudal states, in particular the Kurdish state of Marwaniden.

In the 11th century, a new occupying force took over Kurdistan. These were the Oguz tribes, or Turks, which were near the upper levels of barbarism and which developed into a conquering power after adopting Islam. The Turks quickly organized themselves during these events into feudal lords. Because the cultures in the lands which they occupied were more further developed than their own, the Turkish tribes became mostly assimilated in the regions where they settled.

The period of control by Turkish feudal lords over Kurdistan (Atabey, Hakan, Sultan), which we have only briefly sketched here, lasted from the 11th century until the 20th century. This period was marked by great violence and massacres. Despite the fall of the Atabey, the Akkoyunlular, the Artikogullari, and other Anatolian tribes, the Turkish feudal lords maintained their control over Kurdistan. Then the Mongolian conquerors and the Tibur swept through Kurdistan like a whirlwind. A large part of Kurdistan, which previously was under the control of the Safawidian Empire in Iran, came under the control of the Ottomans. Therefore, Kurdistan became divided between the Safawidian and the Ottoman Empires.

All of these periods of feudal control were of a very violent and exploiting character, and they always faced a violent resistance from our people. Because our people were never fully brought under their control, the banner of resistance was raised at every opportunity. The vast mountains of Kurdistan became forts of security, protecting our existence and our freedom. The period of Ottoman-Turkish feudal control over Kurdistan, which played a major role in the dividing and splitting up of Kurdistan, began in the 16th century. Sheik Idris-I Bitlisi, one of the representatives of the Kurdish feudal dynasty, played a major role in securing the power of the Ottomans over Kurdistan. This one person, who was a willing agent for the Ottoman sultans, divided our people at this time into two schools of thought. This division benefitted the political goals of both the Ottoman sultans as well as the Iranian sheiks. On the one hand, they used Kurdistan as their battlefield for their battles against one another, and on the other hand these battles were made easier for them by playing our people off against one another. Therefore, our people remained under their control. Even today, the Turkish colonialists continue to benefit from this division. At first, the Ottoman-Turkish rule was not very strong, and Kurdish feudal lords enjoyed extensive autonomy. This manifested itself in the sending of pledges of loyalty, soldiers, and gifts to the sultans. But in the 18th century, along with the advent of capitalism, which developed as the dominant mode of production in Western Europe, the Ottomans suffered a series of defeats and the resulting loss of income which they used to draw from their conquered lands abroad they were forced to collect by increasing pressure and exploitation on their internal colonies. In the 19th century, this tendency increased, and as a result, an uprising broke out in Kurdistan as a reaction to this pressure and exploitation, and several tribes took part. The bloody suppression of this revolt led to an increase in pressure from the Ottoman rulers. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War of global redivision, the pressure on Kurdistan came from outside instead. During these years, the external conditions for achieving independence were especially favorable, because the imperialist countries were not able to establish a total occupation of the region. But the internal conditions (feudal tribal structures, the non-existence of modern classes, disorganization) and pressure from the reorganized Turkish ruling classes made it difficult or impossible to make use of the favorable external conditions. Centuries of continuous feudal domination over Kurdistan prevented the creation of a Kurdish society with its own dynamic. The feudalized tribal structure, which was heavily influenced by the foreign occupying powers, was of a very collaborationist character. The Kurdish feudal classes which had formed found it more in their own self-interest to be dependent on foreign powers rather than to be independent. The struggle to preserve their own internal positions of power brought the society as a whole to a hopeless situation.

The Phase Of Capitalist Colonialism

During the phase of capitalist formation, the oppression and exploitation in our country greatly increased, even more so than in the times of slavery and feudalism when there was occupation and plundering. The capitalist colonial forces did not hesitate to use all the means of destruction at their disposal, both subtle and brutal methods, in order to erase the name of our country and the existence of our people from history.

The developments following the First World War had very deep and lasting effects on our country. Whereas before our country had been divided between the Ottoman sultans and the Iranian Shah, now we were divided up into four parts following an agreement between the Turkish colonial power and the British and French imperialists.

During the capitalist period, it was primarily the Turks who colonized Kurdistan. The Turkish Republic, which was founded on the remains of the Ottoman Empire after the war, had no problem in securing its hold over Kurdistan, which had been occupied ever since the Ottoman times. By expanding its capitalist socio- economic basis, the rule of the Turkish Republic, in comparison to Turkish administrations during the feudal period, was more extensive with respect to military, political, economic, and cultural matters. A legal foundation for the annexation of a large portion of Kurdistan into the Turkish Republic was provided by the Treaty of Ankara signed with France in 1921, and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which the British played a major role in drafting. During the Turkish Republic's formative years, the Turkish administration's influence in Kurdistan was very limited. At the same time, the influence of Kurdish feudal and tribal lords (internal autonomy) grew stronger. In the first parliament of the Turkish Republic, one even heard mention of the government of two peoples and the parliament of two peoples. As the central government grew stronger, there were conflicts between the Republic and the local authorities, who naturally wished to protect the class interests of the feudal tribal leaders. The governments of the Republic, who saw it as their task to create an authentic Turkish nation within its own borders, were able to derive great benefits from their conflicts with the local authorities.

In order to create a military basis for the occupation of Kurdistan, the main precondition for a colonial praxis, the strategy of these governments was not to occupy Kurdistan all at once, which wouldn't have been possible anyway given the balance of power at that time, but rather to take over the country bit by bit. In order to do this, classic methods of religious divergence were used to play the people off against each other. To prevent any internal or external opposition, the notion was spread that wild, murderous Kurds were revolting. Just the right time was needed to launch this strategy; at the same time, the uprisings which had been led by feudal lords, but which usually had a tendency to split, grew into full-scale revolts. Using these revolts as a pretext, the people were massacred, the local authorities destroyed, and our country was brought under the total control of the central government. A plan was then launched to intimidate our people from becoming active or launching another revolt ever again.

On the basis of the strategy which was pursued by Turkish governments in the years from 1925 to 1938, our country fell under total military control. With this as a foundation, the development of colonialism in the political, cultural, and economic spheres was much easier.

Despite the fact that international conditions were very favorable for the liberation of Kurdistan from colonialism following the Second World War, there were no progressive steps undertaken in our country due to Turkey's non-entry into the war, which was a result of their strong military control over our country and their attempts to maintain a backwards social structure. When the collaborating Turkish bourgeoisie grew stronger, with external support from the USA and internal backing from Kurdish feudal lords, Turkey underwent a period of economic development in the 1950s. The beginnings of capitalist agriculture and the founding of assembly line industries provided an impulse for removing the isolation which had surrounded Kurdistan. Also, the crisis of imperialism at that time, along with the breaking open of the closed economy to a free market, played a role in this. In short, the development of Turkish capitalism, the market problems of imperialism, and the competition of Kurdish large land owners in capitalist efforts brought forth a form of colonialist capitalism in Kurdistan in the 1960s. The exploitation of the country's natural resources and the effects of this type of capitalism, which led to a partial dissolution of feudalism, were devastating. Millions of people became unemployed as machinery was introduced into agriculture and people became separated from their lands due to Turkish industrialization. In order to prevent a reaction to these negative developments, school-aged youths, particularly in Kurdistan, were subjected to a primitive culture and a policy of assimilation.

The colonization of the Kurdish regions of Turkey, therefore, took place before the colonization of the other parts of Kurdistan.

One small part in the west of southern Kurdistan was under a French mandate for a time; when the French departed, the area came under Arab control. A large segment of the population of this part of Kurdistan, which can be seen as an extension of the borders of northwest Kurdistan, were not recognized as citizens of Syria and held the status of outsiders. In the early 1970s, attempts were made to settle Arab peoples in the fertile Kurdish regions, but this policy was later abandoned. The Kurdish society there, which had lived according to traditional norms, has begun to gradually change over the past few years.

The vast majority of south Kurdistan remained under a British mandate until 1931. The British, together with the Arabs, sought to break the Kurdish resistance against them, and later a dependent Iraqi-Arab client state was created. The Arab bourgeoisie in this state gained full sovereignty in 1958 and exhibited parallels to the seizure of power in Turkey by Mustafa Kemal. Just as the Kemalists in Turkey had occupied northwest Kurdistan during the years from 1925 to 1938, the same task was undertaken in south Kurdistan as well. In 1974, a revolt led by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which had both semi-feudal and semi-bourgeois elements in this part of Kurdistan, was partially put down. Building on this, an attempt was made to complete the military occupation of south Kurdistan and continue with colonization in the other sectors.

The hegemony of the Shah over east Kurdistan dates back centuries. Although the Shah usually came from the Persian nation, they always tried to present themselves as the great leader of the Kurds and the Persians and to be accepted as such. An attempt was made to claim that both peoples stemmed from a joint ancestry. In fact, however, the Persians enjoyed the hegemony over the other peoples living in the empire and they subjected them to their rule.

Iran, which began the 20th century as a British semi-colony, began to grow stronger after the First World War and the seizure of power by Riza Pehlevi, and certain bourgeois reforms were introduced. During the Second World War, the Soviet Red Army in the north and British troops in the south occupied the country. The Azerbaijani and Kurdish peoples took advantage of this advantageous condition to declare their own republics, with the support of the Red Army. When the Red Army retreated soon thereafter, both republics were crushed by the Shah's forces.

After 1950, Iran took on the status of one of the USA's neo- colonies, and under the rule of the Shah took on the role of gendarme for imperialism in the Middle East. The Shah's regime, which grew in strength following the discovery of vast oil reserves, ruled the population with grim, fascist methods. Although capitalism in Iran was able to develop due to the country's relationship to imperialism, this development had no effect upon Kurdistan, which maintained its feudal structures. On the basis of strengthening capitalist relationships, however, colonialist capitalism was eventually able to penetrate into east Kurdistan.

The Phase Of National Liberation

Because the KDP movement simply represented a continuation of traditional Kurdish revolts, partially adapted to the conditions following the Second World War, it was not able to take on the form of a modern national liberation movement. As a result, the movement suffered a defeat in the 1970s. One positive element of this movement was that it kept an element of Kurdish consciousness alive; the negative side of this, however, was that the Kurdish national question became distorted and used as a tool for foreign hegemonical powers.

In the 1970s, when a certain degree of modern socio-economic development could be seen in Kurdistan, and after the KDP had experienced its defeat, new ideological and political tendencies began to develop in Kurdistan. While petty bourgeois tendencies of various forms arose in the northwest and southern parts of Kurdistan, our party, the PKK, came to represent the revolutionary and national line of the workers and the working class.

The creation of our party as a revolutionary socialist vanguard, as well as a modern national liberation movement, marked a very decisive turning point in the history of Kurdistan. Our party introduced a new phase, namely the phase which was characterized by the end of the developed colonial hegemony and the end of the destruction of our nation. Our resistance protected our national identity and propagated the national liberation struggle. By pushing through a revolutionary line within national liberation, based on the modern developments in northwest Kurdistan and the leadership of the working class and the population of the geographically largest section of Kurdistan, the mistakes of previous national liberation movements were corrected and the patriotic sectors of the population were united and regenerated on this basis.

Our party, which was officially founded in 1978 after a five-year ideological phase of formation, and which waged a political and military struggle for national liberation, dealt a heavy blow to the Turkish Republic, which denied the existence of our people. All of this led to the fascist military coup of September 12, 1980. In the period from 1970 to 1980, the ideological and political line of national liberation was formulated. On this basis, the people realized their first revolutionary actions. From a philosophical point of view, this was the time when they began to shed the colonial hegemony over their thinking.

The period from 1980 to 1990 was one of building upon the resistance to the fascist and colonialist regime of September 12, as well as the revolutionary actions of August 15, 1984. The rule of the Turkish Republic over Kurdistan was undermined during this phase, as Kurdish society experienced an enormous rise of revolutionary and national consciousness, which led to the formation of a front and an army within the national liberation movement. These national and revolutionary advances in northwest Kurdistan, under the leadership of our party, began to have an influence over all of Kurdistan.

Today, a very penetrating national and social revolution is taking place in northwest Kurdistan. The national liberation struggle, which is aimed against the special war of the Turkish Republic, is being carried out in all parts of the country. The people, who have become united and conscious under the leadership of our party, are moving to break through colonial rule and create a national and democratic people's power by waging a determined struggle despite unimaginable pains and difficulties. On this basis, the national liberation struggle will spread out to all the other parts of Kurdistan and create a united Kurdistan.

The small, western portion of south Kurdistan is strongly influenced by the events in northwest Kurdistan. Particularly since the mid 1980s, the people there play an active role in the struggle in large numbers. Furthermore, the population of this part of Kurdistan has undergone a significant national and democratic evolution under the leadership of our party. The relations between our national liberation movement and progressive Arab forces have played a major role in this raising of consciousness and organization among the people. In most of south Kurdistan, Iraqi-Arab dominance and hegemony was restored following the 1974 defeat of the KDP. In September 1980, when the Iraqi government pulled many of its forces out of Kurdistan just prior to the Iran-Iraq War, a new armed uprising began. Although this armed resistance sought to shed its old qualities and become modernized, it nonetheless failed to win any major achievements and was defeated once again in 1988. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, this portion of Kurdistan rose up once again, and following the intervention of the imperialist states, this region became one in which various forces were able to agitate. Although part of this region is under Iraqi control again today, there is a federative Kurdish government in most of the area, under the protection of the imperialist states. This situation in south Kurdistan was made possible by the effects of the national liberation struggle in northwest Kurdistan and the general world situation. This development has increased the ties between the northern and southern areas of Kurdistan, thus making a revolutionary union of both regions part of the agenda. Many different forces have taken advantage of the present situation in this part of Kurdistan.

In the eastern part of Kurdistan, there was heavy fighting at the end of the 1970s. When the Shah's regime was overthrown in 1979, colonial rule was removed from east Kurdistan for a short period of time. But the Islamic Republic, which replaced the Shah, soon reasserted its hegemony over east Kurdistan and used brutal methods to deal a nearly total defeat to the traditional resistance forces there. Although the influence of the national liberation movement in northwest Kurdistan has expanded in east Kurdistan as well, the level of national liberation there is very low in comparison to the other parts of Kurdistan.

The present situation in Kurdistan, which is in a continuous process of change, exhibits the following characteristics:

A) There is a heavy struggle going on between those forces which wish to preserve the old colonial status, and those forces which support national liberation. In this respect, Kurdistan is one of the most fought over regions in the world.

B) At the present time, Kurdistan is experiencing a far-reaching national and democratic revolution. In this respect, Kurdistan represents a revolutionary center whose influence is felt not only in the entire region, but across the world. All life in Kurdistan is being affected by the changes being brought about by this revolution.

C) The status of Kurdistan which was brought about in the past (namely colonial division) is being broken by the national liberation struggle. New ties and a new unity are developing between the different parts of Kurdistan. The old harmony between the imperialists and their colonial state is wearing down. A struggle is taking place in Kurdistan between the new colonialist policies of the imperialists, the classical policies of the colonialist states, the politics of collaboration, and the politics of national liberation.

D) The national liberation struggle in northwest Kurdistan contains a decisive and directive element for all of Kurdistan.

The Characteristics Of The Situation In Northwest Kurdistan

In northwest Kurdistan, an increasingly intensive struggle has developed for the past ten years. The revolutionary national liberation struggle, which our party is waging against the special war policies of the Turkish Republic, is the motor of this social change. The situation of struggle defines all sectors of social life. Furthermore, the national liberation struggle being waged by our party against the Turkish Republic has had determining effects upon the national movement and the national struggle in the other parts of Kurdistan.

After the new colonial capitalism developed in Turkey, its effects were then seen in Kurdistan, and in the 1960s a colonialist form of Turkish capitalism began to spread through Kurdistan. In Kurdistan, this economic structure, which formed around state industries completely dependent on the Turkish market, was based on the exploitation of the means of production in Kurdistan. The goal of Turkish colonialism was to swallow up Kurdistan. In the past ten years of war, this has become even clearer, and it has since taken on the form of a special war.

The foundations of economic life in Kurdistan, which are now almost entirely dictated by the struggle which is taking place, can be summarized as follows:

A) The colonial economic structure which was previously formed can now no longer be maintained in the manner it was before. The intensifying national liberation struggle has set limits to it.

B) Despite being limited, the colonial economy has not lessened in its exploitation and plundering, rather these have intensified. This is not in contradiction with the fact that the old structures of Turkish colonialism are eroding.

C) The Turkish Republic has installed a war economy in Kurdistan, and all economic life and economic potentials are completely utilized to benefit the special war. This war economy, however, is a big drain on the Turkish Republic and it has driven the Turkish economy to ruins.

D) In economic terms, the population are very weakened. But despite the conditions of a war economy, in some areas such as trade there has developed an economy for national liberation. The economic relations which have arisen in Kurdistan under colonial hegemony, and which are now developing under conditions of war, bring with them a social formation and change which are dependent upon them. In the past, colonial capitalism eroded the feudal social structures to some degree, and instead brought about its own social corruption and form. While the feudal lords at the top developed into a feudal comprador class, the peasant class began to dissolve, and together with the urban petty bourgeoisie a class of unemployed workers and young intellectuals was formed. Starting with the working class and including the intellectuals, these social classes formed the foundations of the colonial hegemony and they were subjected to a strong process of assimilation. These relationships are now in a period of deep change.

The revolution being led by our party, and in particular the struggle of the past ten years, has led to rapid and extensive changes in the social structure of Kurdistan. The backwards social and cultural institutions which sought to keep colonialism alive are being torn town, and the society is showing the development of a revolutionary arrangement. At the present time, all reality is determined by the present revolution and struggle. On the one hand, a handful of traitorous collaborators with colonialism and the special war have been revealed, on the other hand, a patriotic population is forming, embracing itself more and more and seeking to overcome its differences and divisions.

Under the existing conditions, the system of village guards should be viewed as a class. This class, which is composed of backwards feudal, tribal, and comprador forces, as well as spies, agents, collaborators, and some unknowing tribal representatives, represents a social, political, and military pillar of colonialism in Kurdistan. Turkish colonialism is relying more and more on these groups to oppose the revolution, but at the same time it fears the financial expense and political threat of this class. In the base of supporters which the national liberation movement has given rise to, a national Kurdish capitalist class also wishes to develop. The still weak Kurdish national bourgeoisie is comprised of patriotic wealthy persons, traders, and the upper class of the petty bourgeoisie. The existence and development of this new class in Kurdistan is entirely dependent upon the national liberation struggle. The struggle is resulting in the gradual dissolution of the peasant class, at the same time patriotism is on the rise within the petty bourgeoisie. The war has also given rise to a large class of unemployed workers, only a few of whom are able to find jobs.

The migration which has resulted from the special war is an enormous social problem in Kurdistan. In accordance with the demands of the special war, economic and military means are applied to depopulate all the areas of Kurdistan which support the patriotic struggle. Our people have been spread all over the world, but the majority are to be found in the metropoles of Turkey itself. These migrants, who were created by colonialism in order to weaken the national liberation struggle, have in fact become a great means of support for the national liberation movement.

The class of intellectuals, which used to be under the influence of Kemalism, have recognized that they can no longer oppose the revolutionary struggle and a great number have joined the patriotic ranks. Furthermore, the clear and educational force which the revolutionary national liberation struggle has brought about has helped give rise to an important movement of Kurdish intellectuals.

The politics of Turkish colonialism, which aim to destroy the Kurds as a nation, have suffered a defeat at the hands of the national liberation struggle being led by our party. The educational system of the Turkish Republic no longer functions, and the policies of assimilation can no longer be carried out without obstruction. The Kurdish society is developing a broad, sound, and revolutionary national consciousness, and together with the developing struggle it forms a revolutionary nation. Because of this, the strong ties which used to be determined by tribal structures, and the resulting internal conflicts and factional strife, are disappearing, and in their place is a strong consciousness based on unity and solidarity.

The revolutionary struggle being led by our party, however, has also had an effect of self-discovery upon other national minorities and religious groups who live in Kurdistan, or which are spread out across the world. The politics of our party has exposed the historical workings of Turkish colonialism, namely playing off different peoples against one another, and now that process has been turned around. Our national liberation struggle is the basis for unity for all disadvantaged groups adversely affected by Turkish colonialism, and in it they are able to find their own identity. Our party does not wish to lapse into a narrow form of nationalism, and our party views all the many cultures in Kurdistan as a richness; that's why all cultures are to be guaranteed and supported in their cultural freedom. Our party opposes capitalist-nationalist tendencies who wish to deny that Kurdistan is a land full of cultures, and our party seeks to create conditions under which different cultures can develop in full harmony and freedom.

The backwards world view which for centuries contributed to hatred among peoples is being done away with in today's Kurdistan due to the radical revolution which is unfolding; Kurdish society, which is presently experiencing the biggest process of renewal in its history, will instead possess a revolutionary and patriotic world view.

In order to stop this radical revolution in Kurdistan, the Turkish Republic is waging a special war which knows no boundaries or rules. Political institutions which were once used to strengthen colonial control are being abandoned, and a special war administration is being set up instead all across Kurdistan. This administration, installed by the Turkish Republic, is carrying out the special war in Kurdistan. The Turkish army is building up all of its fighting forces and deploying them in the war in Kurdistan. In addition to traditional army units, there are new creations such as the special corps, the special army, and the special teams, as well as the village guard system and the contra-guerrilla forces which have been created. With the aid of these forces, and not obeying any rules, all forms of war and unimaginably brutal methods are being deployed in Kurdistan. But despite all of this, the Turkish army has lost its former control over Kurdistan and is presently in a hopeless situation.

In the struggle against the political and military control of the Turkish Republic in Kurdistan, our party has developed a political and military dominance. The war of the past ten years, in particular the events since 1990, has illustrated this dominance. There is now a form of dual power in Kurdistan. The feelings and thoughts of the Kurdish people have become revolutionized. The mass organizations and the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK), together with their various legal and illegal associations, form a broad leading force, and the Kurdish population are to a large degree led by this force. The People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK), which our party developed during the course of the war, now has tens of thousands of fighters; this people's army is stationed in all the strategic regions of Kurdistan and it has placed the Turkish army in a position of immobility there.

The events in Kurdistan are determined by the struggle between these two powers. As soon as the fighting forces see it to their advantage, and the conditions of war allow it, then other forms of political struggle can be utilized.

The successes achieved up until now by the revolutionary national liberation struggle which our party is waging against Turkish colonialism have brought with them important political and social developments. It has been shown that the highly reactionary, unjust, and murderous special war regime of Turkish colonialism can be defeated, if no mistakes are made and the political and military line of our party is turned into praxis.

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Indonesia's History and Background

Posted by Garut Cheater Posted on 6:57:00 PM

Indonesia's History and Background

Sukarno, Indonesia's founding president

ANCIENT TIMES

Indonesia did not exist as yet during the Palaeocene period (70 million years BC), the Eocene period (30 million years BC), the Oligacene period (25 million years BC) and the Miocene period (12 million years BC). It is believed that Indonesia must have existed during the Pleistocene period (4 million years BC) when it was linked with the present Asian mainland. It was during this period that the Homonids made their first appearance and Java Man inhabited the part of the world now called Indonesia. Java Man, named Pithecanthropus Erectus by Eugence Dubois who found the fossils on the island of Java, must have been the first inhabitant of Indonesia.
When the sea level rose as the result of melting ice north of Europe and the American continent, many islands emerged, including the Indonesian archipelago. It was also during this period (3000-500 BC) that Indonesia was inhabited by Sub-Mongoloid migrants from Asia who later inter-married with the indigenous people. Later still (1000 BC) inter-marriage occurred with Indo-Arian migrants from the south-Asian sub-continent of India.
The first Indian migrants came primarily from Gujarat in Southeast India during the first Christian era.
The Caka period in Indonesia witnessed the introduction of the Sanskrit language and the Pallawa script by the Indian Prince Aji Caka (78 AD). The Devanagari script of the Sanskrit language was also used, as shown in ancient stone and copper inscriptions (paracasthies) which have been unearthed. The language and script were adapted and called the Kawi language and included words and phrases derived from Javanese.
Early trade relations were established between South India and Indonesia. Sumatra was then named Swarna Dwipa of "the island of gold," Java was called Java Dwipa or "the rice island," and a Hindu kingdom of Crivijaya in Sumatra and Nalanda in South India were not confined to religious and cultural exchanges. They later developed diplomatic relations, and even covered a wide range of trade.
The influx of Indian settlers continued during the period from the first to the seventh century AD. Peacefully and gradually the Hindu religion spread throughout the archipelago. It was adopted by all layers of the people of Java, but limited to the upper classes on the other islands.
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THE PERIOD OF HINDU KINGDOMS

Many well-organized kingdoms with a high degree of civilization were ruled by indigenous kings who had adopted the Hindu or Buddhist religion. This explains why this period in history is called the Period of Hindu Kingdoms. It lasted from ancient times to the 16th Century AD. Because the culture and civilization, which emanated from the Hindu and Buddhist religions, were syncretized with the local cultural elements, the period was also referred to as the Hindu-Indonesian period.
Indian culture and customs were introduced, such as the system of government in a monarchy, the ancestry system, the organization of military troops, literature, music and dances, architecture, religious practices and rituals, and even the division of laborers into castes or varnas. The Hindu literary works known as Vedas and the "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" epics were also introduced through the wayang, or shadow-play performance, which is still very popular in many parts of present day Indonesia.
The first Indian Buddhists arrived in Indonesia between the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD. They brought with them Buddhism in its two sects, Hinayana and Mahayana. The latter became more advanced in the 8th Century AD.
In 144 AD a Chinese Buddhist saint, Fa Hsien, was caught in a storm and landed in Java-Dwipa, or Java Island, where he stayed for five months. The northern part of the island was then ruled by an Indonesian Hindu King named Kudungga. Kutai, on the island of Borneo, was successively ruled by the Hindu kings Devawarman, Aswawarman and Mulawarman.
When the Greek explorer and geographer, Ptolemy of Alexandria, wrote on Indonesia, he named either the island of Java or Sumatra "abadiou". His chronicles described Java as a country with a good system of government and advanced agriculture, navigation and astronomy. There was even mention of the "batik" printing process of cloth that the people already knew. They also made metalware, used the metric system and printed coins.
Chinese chronicles of 132 AD described the existence of diplomatic relations between Java-Dwipa and China. Around 502 AD Chinese annals mentioned the existence of the Buddhist Kingdom, Kanto Lim in South Sumatra, presumably in the neighborhood of present-day Palembang. It was ruled by king Gautama Subhadra, and later by his son Pyrawarman of Vinyawarman who established diplomatic relations with China. Because of a spelling or pronunciation difficulty, what the Chinese called "Kanto Li" was probably Crivijaya, a mighty Buddhist kingdom. On his way to India, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, I Tsing, visited Crivijaya in 671 AD to study the Sanskrit language. He returned 18 years later, in 689 AD Crivijaya was then the center of Buddhist learning and had many well-known philosophy scholars like Sakyakirti, Dharmapala and Vajabudhi.
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The kingdom had diplomatic relations with the south Indian kingdom of Nalanda. The Crivijaya mission built a school on its premises where Indians could learn the art of molding bronze statues and broaden their knowledge of the Buddhist philosophy. With the spread of Buddhism, Crivijaya's influence reached out to many other parts of the archipelago.
Another known Buddhist kingdom was Cailendra in Central Java. It was ruled by the kings of Cailendra Dynasty. During their rule (750-850 AD) the famous Buddhist temple, Borobudur, was built. In 772 AD other Buddhist temple were also built. They include the Mendut, Kalasan and Pawon temples. All of these temples are now preserved as tourist objects near the city of Yogyakarta. The Cailendra kingdom was also known for its commercial and naval power, and its flourishing arts and culture. A guide to learn singing, known as the Chandra Cha-ana, was first written in 778 AD.
The Prambanan temple, which was dedicated to Lord Civa, was started in 856 AD and completed in 900 AD by King Daksa. Earlier Civa temples were built in 675 AD on the Dieng mountain range, southwest of Medang Kamolan, the capital of the Mataram Kingdom.
In West Java were the kingdoms of Galuh, Kanoman, Kuningan and Pajajaran. The latter was founded by King Purana with Pakuan as its capital. It replaced the kingdom of Galuh. The kingdoms of Taruma Negara, Kawali and Parahyangan Sunda came later.
At the end of the 10th Century (911-1007 AD) the powerful kingdom of Singasari emerged in East Java under King Dharmawangsa. He codified laws and translated into Javanese the "Mahabharata" epic and its basic philosophy, as exposed in the Bhisma Parva scripture. He also ordered the 12 translations of the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavat Gita.
Meanwhile, the island of Bali was also ruled by King Airlangga, known as a wise and strong ruler. He had water-works built along the Brantas River that are still in use today. Before his death in 971 AD he divided his kingdom into the kingdoms of Janggala and Daha or Kediri. These were to be ruled by his two sons.
King Jayabaya of Kediri 1135-1157 wrote a book in which he foretold the downfall of Indonesia. Subsequently, so he wrote, the country would be ruled by a white race, to be followed by a yellow race. His prediction turned out to be Dutch colonial rule and the Japanese occupation of the country during World War. However, Jayabaya also predicted that Indonesia would ultimately regain her independence. During the golden period of the Kediri Kingdom many other literary works were produced, including the Javanese version of the Mahabharata by Mpu (saint) Sedah and his brother Mpu Panuluh. This work was published in 1157.
The kingdoms of East Java were later succeeded by the Majapahit Kingdom, first ruled by Prince Wijaya who was also known as King Kartarajasa.
Under King Hayam Wuruk the Majapahit Empire became the most powerful kingdom in the history of Indonesia. It had dependencies in territories beyond the borders of the present archipelago, such as Champa in North Vietnam, Kampuchea and the Philippines (1331-1364). King Hayam Wuruk, with his able premier Gajah Mada, succeeded in gradually uniting the whole archipelago under the name of Dwipantara.
During this golden period of Majapahit many literary works were produced. Among them was "Negara Kertagama," by the famous author Prapancha (1335-1380). Parts of the book described the diplomatic and economic ties between Majapahit and numerous Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, Thailand, Tonkin, Annam, Kampuchea and even India and China. Other works in Kawi, the old Javanese language, were "Pararaton," "Arjuna Wiwaha," "Ramayana," and "Sarasa Muschaya." These works were later translated into modern European languages for educational purposes.

THE PERIOD OF ISLAMIC KINGDOMS

Moslem merchants from Gujarat and Persia began visiting Indonesia in the 13th Century and established trade links between this country and India and Persia. Along with trade, they propagated Islam among the Indonesian people, particularly along the coastal areas of Java, like Demak. At a later stage they even influenced and converted Hindu kings to Islam, the first being the Sultan of Demak. This Moslem Sultan later spread Islam westwards to Cirebon and Banten, and eastward along the northern coast of Java to the kingdom of Gresik. In the end, he brought the downfall of the powerful kingdom of Majapahit (1293-1520).
After the fall of Majapahit, Islam spread further east to where the sultanates of Bone and Goa in Sulawesi were established. Also under the influence of Islam, were the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore in Maluku.
North of Java, the religion spread to Banjarmasin in Borneo and further west to Sumatra, where Palembang, Minangkabau (West Sumatra), Pasai and Perlak were converted.
Meanwhile, descendants of the Majapahit aristocracy, religious scholars and Hindu Ksatriyas retreated through the East Java peninsula of Blambangan to the island of Bali and Lombok. In a later period, however, the eastern part of Lombok was converted to Islam, which entered the island from the southern Sulawesi city of Makassar, now named Ujungpandang.
The capital of the West Java Kingdom of Pajajaran was Sunda Kelapa (1300 AD). It was located in the present capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta. In 1527 Sunda Kelapa was conquered by Falatehan, an Islamic troop commander of the sultanate of Demak. After his conquest the city was renamed Jaya Karta, meaning "the great city," this was the origin of the present name, Jakarta. Falatehan also defeated the Portuguese, who had also tried to seize the city.

THE PORTUGUESE IN INDONESIA

In their search for spices, the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia in 1511, after their conquest of the Islamic kingdom of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula. They were followed by the Spaniards. Both began to propagate Christianity and were most successful in Minahasa and Maluku, also known as the Moluccas.
The Sultan of Aceh in Sumatra, the Sultan of Demak in Java and the Sultan of Ternate in the Maluku islands joined forces in trying to ward off the Portuguese. At that time the power and sovereignty of Ternate sultanate was recognized by more than 72 islands, including the island of Timor. In 1570, the Portuguese succeeded in killing the Sultan of Ternate, Khairun. However, his successor, Sultan Baabullah, besieged the Portuguese fortress at Ternate. Baabullah then allied himself with the Dutch to further confront the Portuguese and Spaniards.
In 1651 the Dutch invaded Kupang in Western Timor. Despite the Dutch presence in Timor, the formal and precise definition of the territories controlled by the two colonial powers did not take place until more than 200 years after the Dutch conquest of Kupang. It was only on 20 April 1859, the Dutch concluded a treaty with Portugal to divide Timor into their respective control : The Dutch occupied the Western part and Portugal the eastern part of the island. From that time Portugal could secure a full control over East Timor until it left the region in 1975.

THE BEGINNING OF DUTCH COLONIALISM

Meanwhile, the Dutch had started their quest for Indonesian spices to sell on the European market at big profit. For the purpose of more efficient and better organized merchant trade they established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602. To protect the merchant fleet from frequent pirate attacks on the high seas, Dutch warships were ordered to accompany it.
After the nationalization of the VOC in 1799, the Dutch Government had a firm grip on the vital territories of the country. People in those territories were forced to surrender their agricultural produce to the Dutch merchants. It was the beginning of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. Sunda Kelapa was renamed Batavia.
Meanwhile, the Hindu Kingdom of Mataram converted to Islam and was ruled by the Muslim, Sultan Agung Hanyokrokusumo. He developed the political power of the state and was a keen patron of the arts and culture. In 1633 he introduced the Islamic Javanese calendar.
Sultan Agung was a fierce enemy of the Dutch. In 1629 he sent his troops to attack Batavia, but they were repulsed by the troops of Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen.
After the seizure of Ambon in the Moluccas in 1605 and Banda Island in 1623, the Dutch secured the trade monopoly of the spice islands. A policy of ruthless exploitation by "divide and rule" tactics was carried out. In this way indigenous inter-island trade, like that between Makassar, Aceh, Mataram and Banten, as well as overseas trade, was gradually paralyzed. Indonesia was reduced to an agricultural country to supply European markets. At the same time, the Dutch adopted a so-called open-door policy toward the Chinese in order that they could serve as middlemen in their trade with Indonesia.
Sultan Hasanuddin of Goa waged a war against the Dutch in 1666. But was defeated and Goa became a vassal state of the VOC under the treaty of Bunggaya of 1667. Prince Trunojoyo of Madura also fought the Dutch. He was defeated and killed in 1680.
To reinforce their spice monopoly in the Moluccas, the Dutch undertook their notorious Hongi expeditions, whereby they burned down the clove gardens of the people in an effort to eliminate overproduction, which brought down the prices of cloves on the European markets. In these outrageous expeditions countless atrocities were committed against people who defended their crops.
In 1740 the Dutch suppressed a rebellion in Jakarta that was sparked by dissatisfied Chinese, who were later joined by Indonesians. Ten thousand Chinese were massacred.
The Kingdom of Mataram began to see its downfall after it was divided by the VOC into the Principalities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta. However, mismanagement and corruption forced the VOC into bankruptcy and on December 31, 1799, all its territories in Indonesia were taken over by the Dutch Administration in Batavia.

BRITISH TEMPORARY RULE

In 1814 the British came to Indonesia and built Fort York in Bengkulu on the west coast of Sumatra. It was later renamed Fort Marlborough.
During the Napoleonic wars in Europe when Holland was occupied by France, Indonesia fell under the rule of the British East India Company (1811-1816). Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles was appointed Lieutenant Governor General of Java and dependencies. He was subordinated to the Governor General in Bengal, India.
Raffles introduced partial self-government and abolished the slave trade. In those days slaves were captured and traded by foreigners. He also introduced the land-tenure system, replacing the hated Dutch forced-agricultural system, whereby crops were grown and surrendered to the Government. Borobudur and other temples were restored and research conducted. Raffles wrote his famous book, "The History of Java," in which he described Java's high civilization and culture.
During the British stay in Sumatra (1814-1825), William Marsden wrote a similar book on the history of Sumatra, which was published in 1889.
After the fall of Napoleon, and the end of the French occupation of Holland the British and Dutch signed a convention in London on August 13, 1814, in which it was agreed that Dutch colonial possessions dating from 1803 onwards should be returned to the Dutch Administration in Batavia. Thus, the Indonesian archipelago was recovered from the British in 1815.

RETURN OF DUTCH RULE

Soon the Dutch intensified their colonial rule. But this only sparked widespread revolts to seize freedom. These revolts, however, were suppressed one after the other.
To mention only a few: Thomas Matulessy, alias Pattimura, staged a revolt against the Dutch in the Moluccas (1816-1818). Prince Diponegoro of Mataram led the Java War from 1825 until 1830. Again, it was a fierce struggle for freedom. Tuanku Imam Bonjol led the Padri War in West Sumatra, while Teuku Umar headed the Aceh War in North Sumatra (1873-1903). King Sisingamangaraja of the Bataks revolved against the Dutch in 1907. An attempt by the Dutch troops to occupy Bali in 1908 was repelled by King Udayana. Revolts were also erupting in Goa, South Sulawesi, and in South Kalimantan.

NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS

When all these regional wars of independence failed, Indonesian nationalists began thinking of a more-organized struggle against Dutch colonialism. The move began with the founding of Boedi Oetomo, literally meaning "noble conduct," on May 20, 1908. This organization of Indonesian intellectuals was initially set up for educational purposes but later turned into politics. It was inspired by Japan's victory over Russia in 1901, which also gave impetus to nationalist movements in many parts of Indonesia. The founder of Boedi Oetomo was Dr. Soetomo who was, at the time, a student of STOVIA, an institution to train Indonesian medi-cal officers. Dr. Soetomo was greatly influenced by Dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo and sup-ported by Gunawan and Suradji.
In 1912 Sarekat Dagang Islam, the Association of Moslem Merchants, was formed by Haji Samanhudi and others. Its objective was at first to stimulate and promote the interest of Indonesian business in the Dutch East Indies. However, in 1912 this organization of middle class businessmen turned into a political party and was renamed Sarekat Islam under the leadership of H.O.S. Tjokroaminoto, Haji Agoes Salim and others.
In 1912 a progressive Moslem organization, Muhammadiyah, was established by K.H. Akhmad Dahlan in Yogyakarta for the purpose of social and economic reforms.
In December of the same year Partai Indonesia was founded by Douwes Dekker, later named Setiabudi, with Dr. Tjipto Mangunkusumo and Ki Hajar Dewantoro. The objective of the party was to strive for complete independence of Indonesia. All three leaders of the party were exiled by the colonial government in 1913.
In 1914 communism was introduced in the East Indies by three Dutch nationals-Sneevliet, Baars and Brandsteder.
In May 1920 Sarikat Islam split into a right and a left wing, the latter was to become the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party) under the leadership of Semaun, Darsono, Alimin, Muso and others.

The Powerless People's Council or Volksraad

In 1916 Sarikat Islam held its first convention in Bandung and resolved the demand for self-government for Indonesia in cooperation with the Dutch. When Sarikat Islam demanded a share in the legislative power in the colony, the Dutch responded by setting up the Volksraad in 1918 which was virtually a powerless people's council with an advisory status.
Indonesian representatives on the council were indirectly elected through regional councils, but some of the other members were appointed colonial officials.
The Volksraad later developed into a semi-legislative assembly. Among the members of this body were prominent nationalist leaders like Dr. Tjipto Mangunkusumo, H.O.S. Tjokroaminoto, Abdul Muis, Dr. G.S.S.J. Ratulangi, M.H. Thamrin, Wiwoho, Sutardjo Kartohadikusumo, Dr. Radjiman, and Soekardjo Wiryopranoto.
Under the pressure of the social unrest in the Netherlands at the end of World War I, the Dutch promised to grant self-government to Indonesians. This was known as the "November promise." It was a promise that was never met.
Besides the Volksraad, there was another body called Raad van Indie, "the Council of the Indies," whose the members were appointed by the Government Achmad Djajadiningrat and Sujono were among the very few Indonesian members of this council.
In 1923 deteriorating economic conditions and increasing labor strikes prompted the colonial government to put severe restrictions on Indonesian civil liberties and make amendments to the colonial laws and penal codes. Freedom of assembly, speech and expression in writing was restricted.

Further Growth of Indonesian Organizations

Despite the political restrictions, on July 3, 1922 Ki Hajar Dewantoro founded Taman Siswa, an organization to promote national education.
In 1924 the Indonesian Students Association, "Perhimpunan Mahasiswa Indonesia," was formed by Drs. Mohammad Hatta, Dr. Sukiman and others. This organization became a driving force of the nationalist movement to gain independence.
The Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) staged revolts against the colonial government in November 1926 in West Java, and in January 1927 in West Sumatra. After their suppression the Government exiled many non-communist nationalist leaders to Tanah Merah, which the Dutch called "Boven Digul" in Irian Jaya. Dr. Tjipto Mangunkusumo was exiled to Bandaneira.
In February 1927 Mohammad Hatta, Achmad Soebardjo and other members of Indonesia's Movements attended the first international convention of the "League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression" in Brussels, together with Jawaharlal Nehru and many other prominent nationalist leaders from Asia and Africa.
In July 1927, Soekarno, Sartono and others formed the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), which adopted Bahasa Indonesia as the official language. This party adopted a militant policy of non-cooperation with the Government as the result of a fundamental conflict of interest between Indonesian nationalism and Dutch colonialism.
In the same year, an all-Indonesia nationalist movement was organized by Indonesian youth to replace earlier organizations, which had been based on regionalism, such as "Young Java," "Young Sumatra" and "Young Ambon."
On October 28, 1929, delegates to the second Indonesian Youth Congress in Jakarta pledged allegiance to "one country, one nation and one language, Indonesia."
Concerned about the growing national awareness of freedom, the colonial authorities arrested the PNI leader, Soekarno, in December 1929. This touched off widespread protests by Indonesians.
In 1930 the world was in the grip of an economic and monetary crisis. The severe impact of the crisis was felt in the Indies, a raw material producing country. The colonial government responded with a strict balanced budget policy that aggravated economic and social conditions.
Two other leaders of the PNI, Gatot Mangkupradja and Maskun Supriadinata, were arrested and tried in court on charges of plotting against the Government. Soekarno was released in September 1931 but exiled again in August 1933. He remained in Dutch custody until the Japanese invasion in 1942.
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In January 1931, Dr. Soetomo founded Persatuan Bangsa Indonesia, the Indonesian Unity Party. Its objective was to improve the social status of the Indonesian people.
In April of the same year, PNI was abandoned. A new party was formed by Sartono, LLM and named Partai Indonesia, the Indonesian Party. Its basis was nationalism, its line was independence.
Also in 1931, Sutan Syahrir formed Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia. Known as the new PNI, it envisaged national education. Mohammad Hatta joined this organization.
In 1933 a mutiny broke out on the Dutch warship "De Zeven Provincien" for which Indonesian nationalists were held responsible. The following year Sutan Syahrir and Mohammad Hatta and other nationalist leaders were arrested and banished until 1942.
In 1935, Soetomo merged Persatuan Bangsa Indonesia and Boedi Oetomo to form Partai Indonesia Raya (Parindra). Its fundamental goal was the independence of Great Indonesia.
In July 1936, Sutardjo submitted to the "Volksraad" a petition calling for greater autonomy for Indonesia. This petition was flatly rejected by the Dutch-dominated Council.
In 1937 Dr. A.K. Gani started the Indonesian People's Movement, Gerakan Rakyat Indonesia, which was based on the principles of nationalism, social independence and self-reliance.
In 1939 the All Indonesian Political Federation, GAPI, called for the establishment of a full-fledged Indonesian parliament. This demand was rejected by the Government in Holland in 1940.
GAPI also demanded an Indonesian military service for the purpose of defending the country in times of war. Again, this was turned down, notwithstanding the impending outbreak of World War II. At the time, there were widespread movements for fundamental and progressive reforms in the colonies and dependencies in Asia.

THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION

After their attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the Japanese forces moved southwards to conquer several Southeast Asian countries. After Singapore had fallen, they invaded the Dutch East Indies and the colonial army surrendered in March 1942.
Soekarno and Hatta were released from their detention. The Japanese began their propaganda campaign for what they called "Great East Asia Co-prosperity". But Indonesians soon realized that it was a camouflage for Japanese imperialism in place of Dutch colonialism.
To further the cause of Indonesia's independence, Soekarno and Hatta appeared to cooperate with the Japanese authorities. In reality, however, Indonesian nationalist leaders went underground and masterminded insurrections in Blitar (East Java), Tasikmalaya and Indramayu (West Java), and in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Under the pressure of the 4th Pacific war, where their supply lines were interrupted, and the increasing of Indonesian insurrections, the Japanese ultimately gave in to allow the red-and-white flag to fly as the Indonesian national flag. Recognition of "Indonesia Raya" as the national anthem and Bahasa Indonesia as the national language followed. Hence, the youth's pledge of 1928 was fulfilled.
After persistent demands, the Japanese finally agreed to place the civil administration of the country into Indonesian hands. This was a golden opportunity for nationalist leaders to prepare for the proclamation of Indonesia's independence.

THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLIC

The Republic of Indonesia first saw light on August 17, 1945, when its independence was proclaimed just days after the Japanese surrender to the Allies. Pancasila became the ideological and philosophical basis of the Republic, and on August 18, 1945 the Constitution was adopted as the basic law of the country.
Following the provisions of the Constitution, the country is headed by a President who is also the Chief Executive. He is assisted by a Vice-President and a cabinet of ministers.
The sovereignty of the people rests with the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). Hence, the President is accountable to the MPR. The legislative power is vested in the House of Representatives (DPR). Other institutions of the state are the Supreme Court, the Supreme Advisory Council and the Supreme Audit Board.
Soekarno became the first President and Chief Executive, and Mohammad Hatta, the first Vice-President of the Republic. On September 5, 1945 the first cabinet was formed.

The War of Independence

The infant republic was soon faced with military threats to its very existence. British troops landed in Indonesia as a contingent of the Allied Forces to disarm the Japanese. Dutch troops also seized this opportunity to land in the country, but for a different purpose, - namely, to regain control of the former East Indies. At the beginning they were assisted by British troops under General Christison, a fact later admitted by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Commander of the Allied Forces in Southeast Asia based in Myanmar. In fact, the British troops were officially only assigned to the task of repatriating Allied prisoners of war and internees.
On November 10, 1945, fierce fighting broke out between British troops and Indonesian freedom fighters in which the British lost Brigadier Mallaby. As a result, the British turned to an all-out combat from the sea, air and land. The newly-recruited army of the Republic soon realized the superiority of the British forces and withdrew from urban battles. They subsequently formed guerrilla units and fought together with armed groups of the people.
Under the pretext of representing the Allied Forces, the Dutch sent in more troops to attack Indonesian strongholds. Between 1945 and 1949 they undertook two military actions.

Diplomacy and Fighting

Meanwhile, on November 11, 1945, Vice-President Hatta issued a manifesto that outlined the basic policy of the new Republic. It was a policy of good neighborhood and peace 22 with the rest of the world.
On November 14 of the same year, the newly-appointed Prime Minister, Sutan Syahrir, introduced a parliamentary system, with party representation, in the Republic.
On December 22, Sutan Syahrir announced Indonesia's acceptance of the British proposal to disarm and confine to internment camps 25,000 Japanese troops throughout the country. This task was successfully carried out by TNI, the Indonesian National Army. Repatriation of the Japanese troops began on April 28, 1946.
Because fighting with the Dutch troops continued, the seat of the Republican Government was moved from Jakarta to Yogyakarta on January 4, 1946.

The Indonesian Question in the United Nations

The war in Indonesia posed a threat to international peace and security. In the spirit of article 24 of the United Nations' Charter, the question of Indonesia was officially brought before the Security Council by Jacob Malik of the Soviet Unions. Soon afterwards, on February 10, 1946, the first official meeting of Indonesian and Dutch representatives took place under the chairmanship of Sir Archibald Clark Kerr.
But the freedom fight continued and Dutch military aggressions met with stiff resistance from Indonesian troops. The Indonesian Government conducted a diplomatic offensive against the Dutch.
With the good offices of Lord Killearn of Great Britain, Indonesian and Dutch representatives met at Linggarjati in West Java. The negotiations resulted in the de facto recognition by the Dutch of Indonesia's sovereignty over Java, Sumatra and Madura. The Linggarjati Agreement was initiated on November 1946 and signed on March 25, 1947.
But the agreement was a violation of Indonesia's independence proclamation of August 17, 1945, which implied sovereignty over the whole territory of the Republic. As such, it met with the widespread disapproval of the people. Hence, guerrilla fighting continued, bringing heavy pressure on Dutch troops.
In July 1947 the Dutch launched a military offensive to reinforce their urban bases and to intensify their attacks on guerrilla strongholds. The offensive was, however, put to end by the signing of the Renville Agreement on January 17, 1948. The negotiation was initiated by India and Australia and took place under the auspices of the UN Security Council.
It was during these critical moments that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) stabbed the newly- proclaimed Republic of Indonesia in the back by declaring the formation of the "Indonesian People's Republic" in Madiun, East Java. Muso led an attempt to overthrow the Government, but this was quickly stamped out and he was killed.
In violation of the Renville agreement, on December 19, 1948, the Dutch launched their second military aggression. They invaded the Republic capital of Yogyakarta, arrested President Soekarno, Vice-President Mohammad Hatta and other leaders, and detained them on the island of Bangka, off the east coast of Sumatra. A caretaker Government, with headquarters in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, was set up under Syafruddin Prawiranegara.
On the initiative of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of India, a meeting of 19 nations was convened in New Delhi that produced a resolution for submission to the United Nations, pressing for total Dutch surrender of sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia by January 1, 1950. It also pressed for the release of all Indonesian detainees and the return of territories seized during the military actions. On January 28, 1949, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to establish a cease-fire, the release of Republican leaders and their Yogyakarta.
The Dutch, however, were adamant and continued to occupy the city of Yogyakarta by ignoring of the Republican Government and the National Army. They deliberately issued a false statement to the world that the Government and the army of the Republic of Indonesia no longer existed.
To prove that the Dutch claim was a mere fabrication, Lieutenant Colonel Soeharto led an all-out attack on the Dutch troops in Yogyakarta on March 1, 1949, and occupied the city for several hours. This offensive is recorded in Indonesia's history as "the first of March all-out attack" to show to the world at the time that the Republic and its military were not dead.
Consequently, on May 7, 1949, an agreement was signed by Mohammad Roem of Indonesia and Van Rooyen of the Netherlands, to end hostilities, restore the Republican Government in Yogyakarta, and to hold further negotiations at a round table conference under the auspices of the United Nations.

World Recognition and Indonesia's Sovereignty

The Round Table conference was opened in the Hague on August 23, 1949, under the auspices of the UN. It was concluded on November 2 with an agreement that Holland was to recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia.
On December 27, 1949 the Dutch East Indies ceased to exist. It now became the sovereign Federal Republic of Indonesia with a federal constitution. The constitution, inter alia, provided for a parliamentary system in which the cabinet was responsible to Parliament. The question of sovereignty over Irian Jaya, formerly West New Guinea, was suspended for further negotiations between Indonesia and the Netherlands. This issue remained a perpetual source of conflict between the two countries for more than 13 years. On September 28, 1950, Indonesia became a member of the United Nations.

The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia

On August 17, 1950 the Unitary State of the Republic on Indonesia, as originally proclaimed, was restored. However, the liberal democratic system of government was retained whereby the cabinet would be accountable to the House of Representatives. This was a source of political instability with frequent changes in government. In the absence of a stable government, it was utterly impossible for a newly-independent state to embark on any development program.
With the return of the unitary state, the President once again assumed the duties of Chief Executive and the Mandatary of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly. He is assisted by a Vice-President and a cabinet of his own choosing. The Executive is not responsible to the House of Representatives.

Challenges to the Unitary State

The philosophy behind the Unitary State was that a pluralistic country like Indonesia could only be independent and strong if it was firmly united and integrated. This was obviously the answer to the Dutch colonial practice of divide and rule. Hence, the national motto was "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" as referred to earlier.
However, no sooner was the Unitary State re-established then it had to face numerous armed rebellions. The Darul Islam rebels under Kartosuwiryo terrorized the countryside of West Java in their move to establish an Islamic State. It took years to stamp them out. Then there was the terrorist APRA band of former Dutch army captain Turco Westerling, which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Outside Java, demobilized ex-colonial arm men who remained loyal to the Dutch crown, staged a revolt and proclaimed what they called "the Republic of South Maluku".
In South Sulawesi an ex-colonial army officer, Andi Aziz, also rebelled. In Kalimantan Ibnu Hadjar led another armed revolt. Sumatra could also account for a number of separatist movements. And, to complete the list, the Indonesian Communist Party again staged an abortive coup under the name of 30th September movement, when they kidnaped and killed six of the country's top army generals in the early hours of October 1, 1965.

The Asian-African Conference

President Soekarno had to his credit the holding of the Asian-African Conference in Bandung, West Java, from April 18 to 24, 1955. The initiative was taken by Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The conference was attended by delegates from 24 Asian and African countries. The purpose of the meeting was to promote closer and amiable cooperation in the economic, cultural and political fields. The resolution adopted became known as the "Dasa Sila", or "The Ten Principles," of Bandung. It strived for world peace, respect for one another's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for non-interference in each other's internal affairs. The resolution also sought to uphold the human rights principles of the United Nations.
The Asian-African Conference became the embryo of the Non-Aligned Movement. The seeds that sprouted in Bandung took firm root six years later when 25 newly independent countries formally founded the Non-Aligned Movement at the Belgrade Summit of 1961. Since then the membership of the Movement has grown to its present strength of 112 member countries.

THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW ORDER GOVERNMENT

Over-confident of their strength and precipitated by the serious illness of President Soekarno, who was undergoing treatment by a Chinese medical team from Beijing, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) attempted another coup on September 30, 1965. The uprising, however, was abrupt and quickly stamped out by the Armed Forces under Major General Soeharto, then Chief of the Army's Strategic Command.
On the night of September 30, or more precisely in the early hours of October 1, 1965, armed PKI men and members of Cakrabirawa, the President's security guard, set out to kidnap, torture and kill six top Army Generals. Their bodies were dumped in an abandoned well at Lubang Buaya, on the outskirts of Jakarta. The coup was staged in the wake of troop deployments to Kalimantan, at the height of Indonesia's confrontation with Malaysia. Moreover, at the time, many cabinet members were attending a celebration of the Chinese October Revolution in Beijing. It was during this power vacuum that the communists struck again.
Under instructions from General Soeharto, crack troops of the Army's Commando Regiment (RPKAD) freed the central radio station (RRI) and the telecommunication center from communist occupation.
Students made for the streets in militant demonstrations to fight for a three-point claim, or "Tritura," that aimed to ban the PKI, replace Soekarno's cabinet ministers, and reduce the prices of basic necessities. They set up a "street parliament" to gather the demands of the people.
Under these explosive conditions, President Soekarno eventually gave in and granted Soeharto full power to restore order and security in the country. The transfer of power was effected by a presidential order known as "the 11th of March order" of 1966. Soon afterwards, on March 12, 1966, General Soeharto banned the PKI. This decision was endorsed and sanctioned by virtue of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly Decree No XXV/MPRS/1966. He also formed a new cabinet, but Soekarno remained as Chief Executive. This brought dualism into the cabinet, particularly when Soekarno did not show support for the cabinet's program to establish political and economic stability. Hence, a special session of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) was convened from March 7-12, 1967. The Assembly resolved to relieve Soekarno of his presidential duties and appointed Soeharto as Acting President, pending the election of a new President by an elected People's Consultative Assembly.

The New Order Government

Ever since taking office in 1967, the New Order Government of President Soeharto was determined to return constitutional life by upholding the 1945 Constitution in a strict and consistent manner and by respecting Pancasila as the state philosophy and ideology.
To emerge from the political and economic legacy of Soekarno's Old Order, the new government set out to undertake the following:

To complete the restoration of order and security and to establish political stability.
To carry out economic rehabilitation.
To prepare a plan for national development and execute it with the emphasis on economic development.
To end confrontation and normalize diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
To rejoin to the United Nations, which Indonesia had quit in January 1965.
To consistently pursue an independent and active foreign policy.
To resolve the West Irian question.
To regain Indonesia's economic credibility overseas.
To hold general elections once every five years.

Much of the implementation of these policies has been described in the foregoing pages. It remains here to mention some of the more notable achievements of the New Order during the first few years of its existence. Results of national development are presented in this book under the heading "Development Achievements" and are updated each year.
With regard to Malaysia, not only were relations normalized but Indonesia together with Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand joined to establish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On achieving independence in 1984, Brunei Darussalam became the sixth member of ASEAN. In July 1995, Vietnam was accepted as the seventh member of this regional organization. The objective of the association is the establishment of regional cooperation in the economic, social and cultural fields, but ASEAN also operates in the political area.
To prepare for national development, in addition to economic rehabilitation, Indonesia secured an agreement with creditor countries to reschedule an overseas debt of US$5 billion. With the recovery of the country's overseas credibility, Indonesia succeeded in the formation of a consortium of creditor countries to assist in her economic development. This consortium is known as the Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI) and includes the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Britain and a number of West-European countries. Its annual meetings are held in Amsterdam under the chairmanship of the Netherlands. Currently, the IGGI has been replaced by the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI) consisting of the former members of IGGI (except the Netherlands) and five new creditors.

East Timor Integration

With the advent of World War II the Japanese ousted both the Dutch and Portuguese from Timor, as well as from the rest of Indonesia. When Japan surrendered to the allied forces in 1945, Indonesians proclaimed the independence of their country which covers the areas of the former Netherlands East Indies. In the mean time, East Timor was returned to the Portuguese by the Allied Forces after the war and the people stayed colonized. They had made several attempts to fight the Portuguese and join Indonesia, but they were suppressed by the colonial regime. Not until 1974 did the Portuguese give them a chance to decide their own political future.
In a statement on May 28, 1974, the Governor of Portuguese Timor, Colonel Fernando Alves Aldela, granted the people permission to form political parties. The response was the emergence of five political parties - UDT (Uniao Democratica Timorese), FRETILIN (Frente Revolucionaria de Timor Leste Independent), APODETI (Associacao Popular Democratica de Timor), KOTA (Klibur Oan Timur Aswain) and TRABALHISTA (Labor Party).
Through lack of popular support, FRETILIN resorted to terror tactics, threats and blackmail in an attempt to intimidate members of the other parties. This caused growing tension throughout the colony and sparked an inevitable civil war.
On August 27, 1975, the Governor and other Portuguese officials abandoned the capital of Dili, fled to Atauro Island and left FRETILIN free to continue its reign of terror. FRETILIN was even supplied with arms from the Portuguese army arsenal.
On November 28 of the same year, FRETILIN unilaterally "declared the independence" of East Timor and announced the formation of "the Democratic Republic of East Timor".
In the light of these developments, on November 30, 1975, at Balibo, UDT, APODETI, KOTA and TRABALHISTA proclaimed the independence of the territory and its simultaneous integration with Indonesia. On December 17, 1975, the four parties announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of East Timor in Dili.
On May 31, 1976, the duly elected People's Assembly of East Timor decided in an open session to formally integrate the territory with the Republic of Indonesia. A bill on this integration was approved by the Indonesian House of Representatives on July 15, 1976 and, with the promulgation by the President, became Law on July 17. East Timor has since been the 27^th province of Indonesia with all the rights and duties under the 1945 Constitution of the Republic.

The Reform Order Government

Since the outset of the First Five-Year Development Plan in 1969, Indonesia under the New Order Government of President Soeharto had endeavored to achieve its national devel-opment goals. Indonesia, indeed, had been able to achieve substantial progress in various fields which had been enjoyed by the majority of the Indonesian people. Indonesia had gained success in the national development. Unfortunately, economic crisis, which began with the monetary crisis, struck Indonesia as of July 1997.
Since the middle of 1997, the people's standard of living dropped considerably. The de-cline in the people's standard of living was aggravated by various political tensions arising from the 1997 general elections. The political system which had been developed since 1966 turned out to be unable to accommodate the dynamism of the aspirations and interests of the community. This led to riots and disturbances. To a certain extend, they reflected the malfunctioning of the political order and of the government, finally causing this situation to develop into a political crisis.
The accumulation of the economic crisis and the political crisis became a triggered factor for crisis in confidence. This applied not just to officials and state-running institutions, but also began to touch on the system of values and the legal foundations that underpin the state-running institutions.
A number of student demonstrations ensued, including the occupation of the People's Consultative Assembly/House of People's Representatives compound. They appealed for political and economic reform; demanded President Soeharto to step down and stamp out corruption, collusion and nepotism. Critical moments prevailed in the capital, Jakarta, and other towns from 12 to 21 May 1998.
On 12 May a tragedy happened in the Trisakti University Campus, causing the death of four students. On 18 May the leadership of the House suggested the President resign. The President's effort to accommodate the developing aspirations of the people by forming a re-form cabinet and a reform committee never materialized as there was no adequate support from various circles.
Finally, on 21 May 1998, President Soeharto, after a 32-year rule of the New Order Government resigned. Pursuant to Article 8 of the 1945 Constitution and the People's Consultative Assembly decree no VII/1973, he handed over the country's leadership to Vice-President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. After the announcement. Habibie took his oath of office before Chief Justice Sarwata to become Indonesia's third President. Earlier President Soeharto disbanded the cabinet which he formed shortly after his reelection for a seventh five-year presidential term in March.
A day after his installment as the third president, Habibie formed the Reform Development Cabinet. He picked the ministers from the various political and social forces, including three politicians from the two minority parties, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), to provide the needed synergy.

President B.J. Habibie outlined the agenda for reform during his presidency as follows:
rooting out corruption, collusion and nepotism, and create a clean government.
reviewing the five political laws upon which the current political system is bound. They are the laws on mass organization, the House of Representatives (DPR), the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), political parties, regional administrations and elections.
implementing sweeping reform in all sectors, including in the political, economic, and legal fields, to enable the government to satisfy mounting demands for a strong and clean government.
boosting output from the agriculture, agribusiness, export-oriented industry and tourism sectors.
safeguarding the implementation of the 1998/99 state budget.
accelerating the bank restructuring program.
resolving the problem of corporate foreign debts.
conducting a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in November 1998, followed by General Elections on May 1999.

PANCASILA DEMOCRACY

Pancasila Democracy is a system of life for the state and society on the basis of the people's sovereignty. It is inspired by the noble values of the Indonesian nation. Pancasila itself, which means the five principles, is the name given to the foundation of the Indonesian Republic. The five principles of Pancasila are : Belief in the One and Only God; A Just and civilized humanity; the Unity of Indonesia; Democracy guided by the inner wisdom of deliberations of representatives; and Social Justice for all the Indonesian people.
Thus Pancasila Democracy means democracy based on the people's sovereignty which is inspired by and integrated with the other principles of Pancasila. This means that the use of democratic rights should always be in line with responsibility towards God Almighty according to the respective faith; uphold human values in line with human dignity; guarantee and strengthen national unity; and be aimed at realizing social justice for the whole of the people of Indonesia.
In a democratic life based on Pancasila, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), being the highest state institution, has a very important role to play. As an institution which fully exercises the sovereign rights of the Indonesian people MPR should always reflect the aspirations and the wishes of the people with all its decisions or decrees. And as the holder of the highest power in the state, the Assembly appoints the President and Vice-President and determines the Guidelines of State Policy for implementation by the President.
The House of Representatives (DPR), the members of which are from the people and are elected by the people, has the function of exercising control over the conduct of the administration by the President. The mechanism of this control by the House of Representatives constitutes a means to prevent constitutional deviation or deviations from the people's wish by the government.

SIMPLIFICATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES

The Government Manifesto of November 3, 1945, opened the way to a rapid growth of political parties. Soon a multi-party system emerged with parties of different ideologies, ranging from nationalism to socialism, religion and even Marxism/Leninism. Hence, the political structure developed into a liberal democracy that was a complete departure from the type of democracy envisaged by Pancasila.
With sharply conflicting ideologies, political rivalry was the order of the day and a stable Government was out of the question. With a total of 24 political parties and their fractions, cabinets could only be formed on the basis of a shaky compromise between the strongest parties. In point of fact, coalition cabinets were formed and dissolved very often. The administration was a complete shambles and development was a far cry.
The first and only general election ever held during the rule of the Old Order took place in 1955. Even that election did not produce a strong cabinet with a solid back-up in Parliament. On the contrary, because political conditions continued to deteriorate, the President ordered the formation of a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution. However, as mentioned earlier, this only ended in a total deadlock which led the president to take all the power of the state into his own hands under the pretext of guided democracy.
Having learned from the experience of the unlimited multi-party system of the past, the New Order Government, which came into office in 1967, decided to simplify the political system along the following lines:

In order to minimize ideological conflicts between political organizations, all political organizations shall adopt Pancasila as their sole basis principle.
To simplify the political system, particularly for the purpose of choosing a political organization by the people in general elections, it was felt that the number of these organizations should be reduced.
In the past, villages were made the bases of political activities and maneuvers, most notably in the heyday of the Indonesian Communist Party. This adversely affected the social and economic life of the village populations. Hence, it would be desirable to free villages from the activities of political organizations.

Furthermore, the large number of organizations has been reduced by the fusion of parties and their affiliated organizations into two political parties - Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (The United Development Party or Partai Persatuan) and Partai Demokrasi Indonesia (the Indonesian Democracy Party or PDI), and one Functional Group or Golongan Karya (Golkar).
Partai Persatuan is a fusion of Nahdlatul Ulama (the Moslem Scholars Party), Parmusi (the Moslem Party), PSII (the Islamic Confederation) and PERTI (the Islamic Union).
PDI is a fusion of the former PNI (the Nationalist Party), the Catholic Party, the Christian (Protestant) Party, the Indonesian Independence Party, and Partai Murba (the People's Party).
Golkar accommodates the aspirations and political rights and duties of functional groups that are not affiliated with either party, namely civil servants, retired members of the Armed Forces, women's organizations, professional groups, farmers, student, etc.
By virtue of the 1983 Guidelines of the State Policy and on the basis of Act No. 3 of 1985, Pancasila has finally been adopted as the one and only ideological principle upon which all political organizations base their activities.

ELECTION SYSTEM

For the election of members of DPR and the Regional DPR (DPRD), the system of proportional representation and register system apply. In this way the number/force of representatives of the organization in the DPR and DPRD is as far as possible in proportion to the amount of support in society. To this end, an organization whose candidates are listed on the list of candidates will obtain a number of seats based on a certain electoral quotient, i.e. a certain number of seats available. The register system as well as the system of general elections reflect the participation of the people and the parties in the political system.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Indonesian Human Rights Actions

Indonesia aims to uphold human rights in line with the United Nations Declaration and Actions in Vienna in 1993. The UN Declaration has inspired the Indonesian government to organize the Second national workshop on human rights.
The national action on human rights in Indonesia formulated in a program which has been enacted for five years, as imbued in the policy of the Indonesian five-year development program on the State Guidelines of the Republic of Indonesia.
The human rights action is expected to strengthen respect for the rights of the Indonesian people for justice as enacted in the 1945 Constitution.
There are four main pillars of the Indonesian actions on human rights namely:

Preparation on international human rights.
Dissemination and education of the people on human rights.
Priority on the implementation of human rights.
The implementation of international rules on human rights as approved by Indonesia.

The activities cover approval, dissemination and education on human rights, priorities on the implementation of human rights.

Priority Covers

To implement human rights as ratified on the basis of recommendations of the related government and non-government institutions.
To further study priorities on international human rights. This is done by an inter-sector department working group.
To prepare draft a document of the ratification. This activity is done by a small inter-departmental team.
To understand international concepts on human rights.
To disseminate information on international concepts on human rights.

In the first year: the Indonesian Government will organize the structure of human rights in the field of economy, social affairs and culture as the convention is against all forms of assassination, and inhuman actions. while the international convention is against all forms of racial discrimination.
In the second year: convention on the prevention and punishment of genocide. and a convention on slavery.
In the third year: the government of Indonesia approves the international convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and their families.
In the fourth year: Indonesia approves an end to human exploitation and prostitution.
The fifth year covers the international convention on civil and political rights.

Harmonization of National Law

In this phase, the government of Indonesia plans:

To organize a study and assessment on several laws and national regulations and or regional regulations which are relevant to international human rights. The activities cover the current laws and plans for new regulations.
To also revise the current laws and or draft new regulations in line with the international human rights.
To give directives to law enforcers concerned in upholding international human rights, for which assistance from the UN Headquarters is needed.

An Obligation to Report

The Government of Indonesia also has the obligation to report to the UN, and will organize:

The formation of a national agency charged with arranging reports from Indonesia to the UN.
The necessity of regular coordination and consultation between government and non-government agencies on the implementation of international human rights.
Training on the structure and dissemination of the reports to certain agencies of the UN.
Dissemination of guidelines of the UN human rights on the obligation of the reports to the government agencies concerned.

Dissemination And Education

The UN Decade on Human Rights Education:

To form a working group to carry out the decade of activities, as follow up of the UN Vienna Declaration and Action Program.
To decide the priorities in the UN plan of action on human rights education for the decade with UN assistance.
To organize symposiums on regional and national level for exchanging views to promote human rights education, in line with the results of the National Workshop on human rights education for development in Asia Pacific, Manila in 1995.
Development and dissemination of human rights studies.

University Level:

To form a human rights study center. In the first stage study centers will be set up in several universities in Jakarta, Central and East Java and one outside Java. To set up libraries on human rights in universities and establish a national center on human rights.
To organize a degree program for a study on human rights in several universities in Indonesia or abroad on a scholarship.
Education and training on human rights for law enforcement apparatuses with aid from UN headquarters.

School Programs

The government of Indonesia in encouraging the socialization of human rights will prepare three activities in schools such as:

To prepare a curriculum on human rights for elementary, secondary and high schools.
To translate literature or books on human rights for the students.
To train teachers on human rights with technical assistance from various related international organizations.

Extra Curricular Education include:

To prepare publication on human rights in which the public understands them easily.
To make the public aware of human rights in villages through government programs while guidance and counseling are given to apparatuses.
To promote workshop programs on human rights.
To organize several workshops and discussions in social organization and non-governmental organizations.
To formulate counseling on concepts of human rights in social groups such as religious organizations, scouts, youth organizations etc.

Education through Family:

Through an education pattern for children.
Family reinforcement.

Mass Media

To organize regular workshops and training on human rights for journalists and information officers.
To organize interviews and discussions on television and radio, in cooperation with the Department of Justice.
To disseminate information and booklets on human rights.
To display activities on human rights in the printed and electronic media.
To activate traditional media.

Priorities on the Implementation of Human Rights

This is done specially on the right to live, arbitrary arrests, abuse, law and justice and eradication of poverty.
1. Dissemination of information on international standards for law enforcers:
    a. The translation and publication of information on human rights which cover.
            (1) a code of ethics for law enforcers by an institution,
            (2) basic principles on the use of force and firearms by the law enforcers,
            (3) minimum standard for treatment of arrests,
            (4) prevention and effective investigation on execution of the death sentence
                 with-out due process of law, arbitrariness and suddenly,
            (5) notes on explanation for submitting information on people abducted by force
                 and against their will.

The distribution of kits on human rights.
Integrated workshops for judges, prosecutors, police jail wards on relevant problems, to be held at least four times a year.

2. Dissemination of Ratified International Convention on abuse and arbitrary Arrest:

To multiply texts of the translated conventions.
To distribute information kits on the conventions and their consequences.

3. To develop Teaching on Human Rights for Law Enforcers:

Formally, the teaching is held in extra-curricular activities in the police and military academy and other higher learning institutions by using comparative studies abroad for education and training organizers.
Informal activities may be done in discussions and groups of society.

4. Study and Dissemination on International Humanitarian Law:

To strengthen the task and function of the existing national committee.
To support the existing humanitarian law study centers by way of organizing libraries and visiting programs for comparative studies.
To continue studies on the Geneva conventions including their protocols and possibilities of the ratification. This can be done through cooperation with permanent humanitarian committees.
To organize workshops on humanitarian laws by arranging regional ICRC-ASEAN seminars.

5. Specific Program for Judges and Prosecutors:

Program and training in court administration.
Training abroad for special cases on human rights, for a maximum of 10 people twice a year.

Implementation Of Human Rights Convention

Promotion and protection of children's rights. This can be done through national institutions. cooperation with regional and international organizations in line with clause 23 of the convention. training, data collecting, evaluation and controlling. social mobilization. and better laws and regulations.
Promotion and Protection of Women's Rights:

The activities are carried out through the promotion of social mobilization, socialization of information on the Convention on the elimination of discrimination against women (CEDAW) and meetings or seminars on CEDAW, to strengthen study centers on women in the framework of promoting the role of women in the implementation of human rights.
The renovation of laws and regulations and law enforcement. Through the harmonization of national laws. In addition, the minimum standard is set for women in the family, work place and society.
National program on the eradication of cruelty against women. this program will enhance the awareness of the people on the importance of reporting to authorized bodies about all forms of cruelty against them. It will also strengthen the position the working women in labor organizations.
Administrative steps: This will cover the inclusion of CEDAW in the national pro-gram and policy, the allocation of a state budget to implement CEDAW on all administrative levels.
Monitoring and report: This includes the development of a system or mechanism to monitor CEDAW implementation, and preparation of periodical report to the United Nations on the implementation of CEDAW in Indonesia. The program is carried out by an inter-departmental group in cooperation with the National Committee on Human Rights and Non-governmental organizations.

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CIA & military secretly helped Israelis,

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