‘Sarawak Border Forces Adequate’

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30401, 28 March 1964, Page 13

‘Sarawak Border Forces Adequate’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) KUALA LUMPUR, March 2G.

The Chief Minister of Sarawak, Mr Stephen Kalong Ningkan, said today the frontiers of his State might have to be reinforced in the near future, but in the meantime forces there were adequate for the handling of any Indonesian threat.

He said he would be seeing the Federal Defence Ministry about getting more military aid. The people of Sarawak were impatient to fight the Indonesians, Mr Ningkan said. “We will fight them not only in the jungles, but throughout the country, until they surrender.”

Reports have been published of a massing of Indonesian forces on the Sarawak frontier. Mr Ningkan said: “We have been expecting trouble since February. Our forces are being deployed along the border to face any attack.”

The Indonesians have the backing inside Sarawak of the largely-Chinese local Communist Party. The Government says about 1000 young Chinese have crossed into Indonesia for military training and arms, and that they are filtering back with Indonesian regular soldiers.

The Malaysian Government issued a statement today quoting the Deputy Chief Minister of Sarawak (Mr James Wong) as saying in Kuching, the State capital, that the situation was serious.

“The security forces are fully confident of their ability to deal with further incursions,” he said. “But the public must realise that incursions will continue, probably on a larger and deeper scale than hitherto, and that a small proportion of them will succeed in getting through into rear areas."

In Singapore, military sources described a Melbourne newspaper report that a large terrorist attack on Sarawak was possible within the next week or two as “guessing.” Indonesian Build-Up In Kuching yesterday, a security forces spokesman said Indonesian build-up of forces along their side of the border continued. He cited six places where he said it was occurring, and said at least four of the concentrations were up to several hundred men each. Nearly 100 Indonesianbased guerrillas have been killed since last April in Borneo, a Malaysian security forces spokesman said today in Kuching. About 80 were Indonesian and the rest Sarawakborn Chinese.

Since Indonesia and Malaysia proclaimed a “cease-fire” in January, he said, 17 Indonesian guerrillas had been killed, 11 wounded and 12 captured. Six other surrendered.