| Raymond Westerling | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 31, 1919 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) |
| Died | November 26, 1987 (aged 68) Purmerend, The Netherlands |
Raymond Pierre Paul Westerling (31 August 1919 - 26 November 1987), nicknamed the Turk, was a Dutch military officer. He waged a bloody occupation campaign in Sulawesi during the Indonesian National Revolution after the Second World War, and staged a coup d'état in Bandung and Jakarta in January 1950.
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Westerling was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, as a child from a Dutch father and a Greek mother. During the Second World War, Westerling would join the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and receive his training in England. After the War, Westerling would be sent to the Dutch East Indies to suppress the Indonesian Republicans. By November 1946, the Dutch governance of soutern Sulawesi was being hindered by local Republican guerillas trained in Java. As a Captain of the Special Forces Depot (DST), Westerling commanded a successful albeit bloody counter insurgency campaign to pacify South Sulawesi.[1] The KST consisted mostly of indigenous soldiers and was an elite unit of the KNIL, and were relentless in their methods of subjugating the population.
From December 1946 to February 1947[2], Westerling's forces would utilize terror tactics which led to the deaths of at least 10,000 Indonesians and the decimation of the Republican forces in the region.[3] Westerling was accused of using arbitrary terror techniques including public execution, which were copied by other anti-Republicans. As many as 3,000 Republican militia and their supporters were killed in a few weeks.[4] In contrast, Westerling maintains in his autobiography that only 600 deaths occurred during the duration of his campaign, accusing the Republicans of exaggerating the figures.[5]
After the 1949 Indonesian independence, Westerling commanded a force, the Angkatan Perang Ratu Adil (APRA, Legion of Ratu Adil) of deserted Regiment Special Forces (one of successors of the DSF), and KNIL soldiers. He collaborated with the Federalist Sultan Hamid II in staging a coup d'état in January 1950 to overthrow the Sukarno government.[6] Poorly planned, the coup failed and Westerling had to flee to Singapore.[7]
Although the Indonesian government wanted to try Westerling on war crimes[8], Westerling never had to stand trial for these allegations. He moved to the Netherlands, where he died in Purmerend in 1987.