Trikora Operation, the Giant Military Aimed to Free West Papua from the Dutch

Dutch colony – pinterest.com

In respect to the negotiations undertaken by Indonesia and Dutch in 1945-1949, West Papua (then West Irian Jaya) should be handed to Indonesia as late as 1950. Even according to the principle of uti possidetis juris, West Papua should automatically become a region under Indonesian administration. However, the Dutch did not act according to the principle or negotiation which had taken place.

Even after the Dutch-Indonesia Round Table Conference in 1949, in which the Kingdom of Netherland (Dutch) agreed with the independence of Indonesia, they still retained sovereignty over West Papua. The promise of declaring West Papua as a part of Indonesia at least a year after the Round Table Conference never became a reality.

Indonesia’s government saw that the Dutch had no intention to keep the agreement they made in the Round Table Conference. In response, Indonesia withdrew from the Netherland-Indonesia Union. This also marked the moment when the young nation realized that the diplomacy did not work effectively, therefore: they continued the fight to annex West Papua through military force.

People’s Triple Command

Trikora – wordpress.com

Since the negotiation with the Kingdom of Netherland about West Papua did not show any positive sign, Indonesia decided to use the military to invade their administration in the region. On December 19, 1961, Sukarno as the president of Indonesia at the time declared Trikora, an abbreviation for Tri Komando Rakyat (People’s Triple Command), in Yogyakarta.

The content of Trikora, as the name suggests, consisted of three commands. Firstly, Trikora aimed to prevent the Dutch from forming a puppet State of West Papua. This command was a response to the Dutch’s effort to establish a puppet country in West Papua instead of handing the administration to Indonesia.

Secondly, Trikora asked people to fly the red and white flag (Indonesia’s national flag) in West Papua. It was a symbolic action to show that West Papua was under Indonesia’s sovereignty. Thirdly, Trikora commanded people to get ready for mass mobilization as an attempt to defend Indonesia’s independence and unity.

To implement these commands, President Sukarno formed the Mandala Command. Led by Commander Soeharto (who later became the next president of the country), Mandala Command was in charge of strategic planning, preparation, and implementation of the military operation in West Papua.

Giant Military Operation in West Papua

Papua – ibiblio.org

During Trikora, Indonesia had a good bilateral relation with Uni Soviet, which made the country got the support from the then one of the greatest nations in the world. The diplomacy behind this cooperation was undertaken in December 1960 when General A. H. Nasution visited Moscow to buy military logistics. The diplomacy went well and Indonesia could get ammunition worth of US$ 2.5 billion—paid in a long term.

Using the war logistics from Uni Soviet, Indonesia got massive advanced naval and air forces, including the largest warship with giant cannons called KRI Irian. In term of size and strength, KRI Irian was proportional to the United States’ best warships such as USS Wisconsin, USS Missouri, and USS Iowa. With such power, Indonesia was considered as the strongest military in the southern hemisphere at the time.

Indonesian military also prepared for airports which were ruined by the war—many of them were located on the border of Maluku and West Papua. In 1961, at least 14 military airports near the border were ready for mass mobilization against the Dutch troops in West Papua. However, the attack did not take place right away since the strategies used by Indonesia’s military forces were divided into three stages as explained below.

1. Infiltration—in which more than 10 companies of the military forces infiltrated the strategic area in West Papua and built strong military bases with the help of West Papuans. Within eight months in 1962, Indonesia had successfully insert 562 soldiers by sea and 1154 by air drops to West Papua.
2. Exploitation—was an open attack on the Dutch military bases which had been infiltrated beforehand so that the area had not only Indonesian troops but also military logistics. The biggest attack was called Jayawijaya Operation—it was the biggest amphibious operation in the history of Indonesian Navy. The operation involved 100 warships and 16,000 marines.
3. Consolidation—was the process to enforce Indonesian law in West Papua to show that the region had officially become part of the country.

The giant military operation had made the Dutch recognized Indonesians’ determination to annex West Papua. The Dutch was also pressurized by the U.S. which advised for peaceful conflict resolution instead of continuing military fight against Indonesia. As a response, the Dutch was willing to sign the New York Agreement on August 15, 1962, so that the Jayawijaya Operation was called off.

The New York Agreement was an important point in changing the status of West Papua from the Dutch’s colony to be a part of Indonesia. The whole Trikora Operation had played a big role in making it happen since after the agreement, the West Papuans decided to join Indonesia.

Source: https://onwestpapua.com/trikora-operation-giant-military-aimed-free-west-papua-dutch/

 

From Trikora to Pepera – Indonesia’s Take Over of West Papua

Pepera – activehistory.com

Indonesia proclaimed its Independence in 17th of August 1945. However, there is one region that remains as a diplomatic and political conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia. It was Western New Guinea (West Papua). Indonesia had always considered West Papua as a part of the its state, but the Dutch refuse to recognize it and illegally occupied the territory.

For more than 15 years, from its Independence Day until 1961, Indonesia failed to gain authority of West Papua. The Dutch argued that the West Papua territory did not belong to Indonesia since the people of West Papua is Melanesians—not Indonesians. While it is true that Melanesian was physically and ethnically different from Indonesian, the fact is Indonesia has always been a large home for Melanesians. Besides West Papua, Melanesians in Indonesia are located in Maluku Island, South Maluku, and East Nusa Tenggara.

Trikora – wordpress.com

Indonesia had pursued bilateral negotiations with the Netherlands regarding the status of West Papua. Took place at The Hague between December 1950 and January 1952, these meetings failed to produce an agreement. In 1954, Indonesia also attempted to raise support from United Nations (UN) and having it placed on the agenda for the ninth session at UN General Assembly. In response, the Netherlands represented by Herman van Roijen (Dutch Ambassador to the UN) warned to ignore any recommendation to be made on that assembly.

Once again, Indonesia’s effort for West Papua dispute was without success. This has made Indonesian government envision further and became more strategic—it came to a sense that taking over West Papua requires a strategy which combined diplomatic, political, and economic pressure, along with military invasion. Soekarno emphasized this issue as an important priority on his presidency through many of his speeches, and gain popular support from the Indonesian public. By 1953, the West Papua dispute had become the central issue in Indonesian domestic politics.

Indonesian government embarked on a national campaign targeting Dutch economic interests in Indonesia in November 1957. This led to the withdrawal of the Dutch flag carrier KLM’s landing rights, the take over of Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM) shipping line along with Dutch-owned banks and other states, mass demonstrations, and many more. By January 1958, ten thousand Dutch residents in Indonesia left, mostly returned to the Netherlands.

On 19 December 1961, President Soekarno declare the Tri Komando Rakyat (Trikora) or People’s Triple Command. The content of Trikora was pretty clear and assertive:

• Stop the execution of Papua becoming a doll-country by the Netherlands
• Raise the red-and-white flag of Indonesia in West Irian (Papua)
• Prepare for general mobilization to preserve the independence and unity of Indonesia

With the objective of liberating West Papua by 1 January 1963, Trikora operation was started by establishing a special team called Komando Mandala Pembebasan Irian Barat (the Mandala Command). This team was under the command of Major-General Soeharto, and headquartered in Makassar, South Sulawesi. The Mandala Command enforced Trikora Operation in three phases: infiltration, exploitation, and consolidation.

Pepera – activehistory.com

The infiltration phase began in January 1962. The first attempt for an amphibious landing was failed and ended disastrously, in which many crew members and marines were killed; along with numerous Indonesian navy boats experienced bad damages. However, over the next 8 months, Indonesia successfully infiltrate 1154 troops through the air and 562 armies by the sea. In mid-1962, Indonesian military activity continued to escalate in the area, preparing for the second pace of Trikora Operation

The exploitation phase was executed by targeting the Netherlands’ main power base in West Papua, at Biak island. On 13 and 14 August 1962, a force of 7000 paratroops, 4500 marines, and 13000 armies deployed to fight against the Dutch military base at Biak. At that time, the Netherlands government was struggling to gain international military support. On the other hand, Indonesia was supported by the Soviet military assistance.

On 15 August 1962, the Netherlands agreed to sign the New York Agreement, consisting several important points. Firstly, the Netherlands officially transfer the authority of West Papua to UN by 1 October 1962. Then, Indonesian flag was raised in West Papua, along with UN flag, started from 31 December 1962 until UN officially handed over the authority of West Papua to Indonesia. It was a huge diplomatic triumph for Indonesia because West Papua finally got international recognition as a legitimate territory of Indonesia.

However, West Papua would not automatically handed-over to Indonesia. As one of the most important points of New York Agreement was the arrangement for the Act of Free Choice, Indonesia must give the West Papua inhabitants freedom to choose, whether they want to join Indonesia or not. It was then called Penentuan Pendapat Rakyat (Pepera) under UN supervision.

During the Act of Free Choice, representatives came to vote simply by raising their hand to make a choice. Representation system in an election is very common in Papua, they called it Noken. Once everybody knew who or what they wanted to choose, a representative would be sent to make the vote. After the voting, their decisions was made, and the UN respected the result. In 1969, West Papua then officially became the territory of Indonesia.

Source: https://onwestpapua.com/trikora-pepera-indonesias-take-west-papua/