Actions in Central Java

Actions in Central Java

The only significant military actions in support of the movement oc- curred in the province of Central Java and the region of Yogyakarta. 45

The rebellion was extensive in these two locations. 46 Junior officers mu- tinied against the highest-ranking officer in the province, Brigadier

General Suryasumpeno, and three district army commanders. In Se- marang, the capital of Central Java, a colonel on Suryasumpeno’s staff occupied the radio station with a group of rebel troops and proclaimed himself to be the new commander at about 1 p.m. He was Colonel Su- herman, the provincial chief of army intelligence.

In Yogyakarta Major Muljono led the rebel troops in raiding the home of their commander, Colonel Katamso. They abducted him and his chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Sugijono, who happened to be at the house when the rebels arrived. They brought these two officers to a small town just north of Yogyakarta and confined them in the barracks of an army battalion. Later, they killed these two officers.

The military officers behind the movement in Yogyakarta, unlike their counterparts in Semarang, worked in coordination with local civil- ians. A crowd came out into the streets of the city in support of the movement. Major Muljono, as an officer in charge of civil defense af- fairs, already had close connections with civilian organizations such as those of the PKI. As soldiers spirited away Colonel Katamso, youths in

The Incoherence of the Facts t 55

various PKI-affiliated organizations surrounded the Yogyakarta sultan’s palace, the seat of civilian authority. They also took over the city’s radio station and began broadcasting statements in favor of the movement around 8 p.m.

Similar events transpired in the province’s second-largest city, Solo.

A junior officer led the movement. Left-wing civilian organizations is- sued statements of support of the movement, although there do not ap- pear to have been any street actions as in Yogyakarta. The rebel leader in Solo, Major Iskandar, proclaimed himself head of the Solo Revolution Council and ordered soldiers loyal to him to arrest his commanding of- ficer, Lieutenant Colonel Ezy Suharto, chief of staff of Solo’s Korem (Komando Resort Militer, the Resort Military Command), Captain Parman, and another officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ashari. The major called for representatives of all political parties to gather under his aus- pices for a meeting to establish a revolution council for the city. The mayor of Solo, Utomo Ramelan, a member of the PKI, issued a state- ment supporting the movement.

In another city in Central Java, Salatiga, rebel army officers acted without any civilian support. Lieutenant Colonel Idris, the chief of staff of the Korem in Salatiga, mobilized troops against his commanding of- ficer, Colonel Sukardi, and the other key army officer in the city, Lieu- tenant Colonel Sugiman. No civilians issued statements of support or participated in demonstrations. The mayor of Salatiga, Bakri Wahab, belonged to the PKI, but he did not publicly express support for the movement.

Thus in Central Java on the night of October 1, midranking officers seized control of the provincial command in Semarang and abducted the district commanders of three key cities. Only in Yogyakarta did ci- vilians take to the street in support of the movement, and only in Solo did civilian politicians issue statements of support. Only in Yogyakarta were officers killed. The actions taken in the name of the movement in Central Java formed no distinct pattern.

The movement appears to have been in contact with army officers in other provinces. Supardjo noted in his postmortem analysis that the movement had sent couriers to a variety of provinces. While officers in other provinces may have known about the movement and contem- plated taking some sort of action, they remained passive. 47 Central Java and Yogyakarta were the only territories outside Jakarta where the movement manifested itself.

56 t The Incoherence of the Facts