Republicans Start Guerilla War: Wide Uprisings

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22826, 22 December 1948, Page 5

Republicans Start Guerilla War: Wide Uprisings

(10 a.m.)

BATAVIA, Dec. 21

Fighting has broken out in Jogjakarta and armed uprisings are reported from several places in Indonesia, according to the office of the Republican representative in Singapoi’e, quoting clandestine wireless messages. “The People’s Defence Units” claimed on Sunday to have wiped out 18 Dutch paratroops dropped at Batjero on the eastern outskirts of Jogjakarta. Another 34 dropped elsewhere during the Jogjakarta operation are also reported to have been “eliminated.” Colonel Harris Nasution is now acting Commander-in-Chief of the Republican Army, in succession, to General Soedirman, who was ill in Jogjakarta when he was captured by the Dutch. A Republican communique, quoted by the Republican office in Singapore, said that everything was proceeding according to plan with the Republicans avoiding pitched battles, defending only strategic positions and attacking the lines of communication.

The Republican office claims that the situation in Sourabaya is so tense that the Dutch were forced to impose a curfew after 7 p.m. In the State of East Indonesia, where the Premier and the Cabinet resigneden bloc after the resumption of the Dutch police action, the Dutch are reported to have imposed a rigid censorship and prohibited all assemblies. Uprisings are reported in this area. Armed fighting is reported in five towns in East Java. The Republicans claim that after fighting along the status quo line near Sourabaya, their forces penetrated Dutch territory. South of Malang they halted the Dutch drive nine miles inside Republican territory and are now pushing them back towards Malang.

The Republican office claims that armed revolt has broken out in seven big towns in Pasundan State, West Java where the people who remained inactive in adherence to the truce agreement resumed military action.