Trikora Day

Trikora's Background and Characters

The Dutch apparently wanted to make West Papua a puppet state.  Petrik Matanasi in "History of Trikora's Speech and Sukarno's Ambition to Control Papua" revealed that in February 1961, the Netherlands began to form a parliament. Then, on October 19, 1961, the Papuan National Committee was formed.

Papua's military strength is also being built.  The Ministry of Information of the Republic of Indonesia released the book West Irian Our Region (1962) in which there is evidence that the Dutch had held a "Flag Exhibition" (Vlagertoon) which was accompanied by warships on April 4, 1960. Seeing this, Sukarno and other high-ranking Indonesian officials  did not remain silent.On March 6, 1961, the Kora-1 Army Corps was formed. As the commander of the command was Major General Suharto.

The name of this unit has been changed several times, from the Army General Command (Tjaduad) to the Army Strategic Command Command (Kostrad).

On December 11, 1961, the Indonesian government also established the National Defense Council (Depertan).

According to the book History of the TNI-AD, 1945-1973: The Role of the TNI-AD in Defending the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (1979), three days after that a session was held which gave birth to the Supreme Operations Command (KOTI) which was led directly by President Sukarno.

On December 19, 1961, President Sukarno expressed Trikora's intentions through a speech he called for in Yogyakarta.

Contents of Trikora and Its Purpose

Call Martowidjojo through his book Testimony About Bung Karno (1999:322) described the situation when Bung Karno gave a speech on December 19, 1961:

"This giant meeting was visited by hundreds of thousands of people from the Yogyakarta area and outside the Yogyakarta area, so the North Square in Yogyakarta became a sea of ​​people."

In the morning at 09.00 WIB, Sukarno conveyed Trikora's goal to thwart the formation of a puppet state by the Dutch in West Papua.

Bung Karno also emphasized that the Red and White flag should fly in West Irian and a general mobilization be held to take back West Irian from Dutch control.

The contents of Trikora as called for by Bung Karno are as follows:

1. Fail the puppet state of Papua 
2. Raise the Sang Saka Merah Putih flag in Papua 
3. Prepare for public mobilization

On January 2, 1962, President Sukarno formed the Mandala Command and appointed Major General Suharto as commander.

The task of this unit is to plan, prepare, and carry out military operations to combine West Irian with Indonesia.

End of Operation Trikora

In launching the Trikora action, one of the known ones was the cruiser KRI Irian 201. This ship was obtained by Indonesia from Russia on October 5, 1961.

According to Achmad Taufiqoerahman in Maritime Leadership (2019:258), the KRI Irian 201 ship is equipped with various combat facilities, such as missiles, torpedoes, to long-range bombs.

The book Laksmana Kent Protecting the Indonesian Seas (2014:38) compiled by Bernard Kent Sondakh and his colleagues explained that at that time Indonesia had at least 12 frigates, 12 submarines, 22 fast boats with torpedoes and guided missiles, and 4 minesweepers.

At the suggestion of the United States, Indonesia was asked to put forward a diplomatic route to take over West Papua from the Netherlands.  The United States is willing to "arbitrate" and provide a "neutral" place to discuss the issue.

Indonesia and the Netherlands, at the insistence of the US, met again at one table on August 15, 1962. The Indonesian delegation was led by Adam Malik, while the Dutch sent Dr.  Jan Herman van Roijen.  US diplomat, Ellsworth Bunke, acted as arbiter.