Kodam III/Siliwangi

Siliwangi Division (1948–1952)
Tentara & Territorium 'Siliwangi' (1950–1959)
Kodam VI Siliwangi (1959–1985)
Kodam III Siliwangi (1985 - present)
Active 1948 – present
Branch Indonesian Army
Garrison/HQ Bandung
Engagements Indonesian National Revolution, separatist uprisings in 1950s and 1960s
Commanders
Current
commander		 Maj.Gen. TNI Dedi Kusnadi Thamim[1]

KODAM III/Siliwangi is a Military district formation of the Indonesian Army. The Division was formed during the Indonesian National Revolution by what was then known as the People's Security Army (TKR). It was stationed in West Java where much of its membership was recruited, and bore the name of a 15th-century kingdom located in this area and of that kingdom's King Siliwangi. it became a Territorial Division (Tentara & Territorium) on 24 July 1950,[2] and a military regional command, or KODAM, in 1959.

Since May 1946 the division was commanded by then-colonel Abdul Haris Nasution and his adjutant was Umar Wirahadikusumah, and slightly later Amirmachmud was the Division Commander's Chief of Staff. Kemal Idris was also among the division's officers. All of these would play a significant role in Indonesia's military and political life during the coming decades.

Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement of January 1948 known as the Renville Agreement, the Siliwangi Division was obliged to evacuate West Java and hand it over to the Dutch, and to move over to Central Java. During this lull in fighting the colonial troops, the Division was involved in the bloody crackdown on the Communists at Madiun, in the course of which thousands were killed.

In December 1948 the Dutch army launched the surprise attack known as Operation Kraai, swiftly capturing the Indonesian provisional capital at Yogyakarta and most Indonesian territory. The Siliwangi Division at that time conducted a fighting retreat back to its original position in West Java, where its men had their social milieu and were familiar with the terrain, and which was therefore the best suited for this unit to conduct guerrilla warfare in. Despite the division's recent anti-Communist record, this action came to be known as the Long March Siliwangi, for the famed Long March of Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party. On arrival in West Java the division fought both the Dutch and the rebellious DI/TII.

In 1953 Nasution wrote a book called the Fundamentals of Guerrilla Warfare, based on his own experience of fighting and organising guerrilla warfare, which would become one of the most studied books on guerrilla warfare along with Mao's works on the same subject matter.

Poncke Princen, a former Dutch colonial soldier who went over to the Indonesian rebels, took part in that "Long March" and was appointed a staff officer in the Division.

On 23 January 1950, a rebel group called Angkatan Perang Ratu Adil (APRA) led by Captain Raymond Westerling attempted to seize Bandung during the APRA Coup d'état.[3] Lt. Col. Lembong and 93 other Indonesian soldiers and officers were killed. On 24 January 1950, the rebels tried to attack Jakarta, but the rebellion was quashed in a fierce battle in Pacet, near Jakarta. Sultan Hamid II was arrested, but Capt. Westerling managed to escape to Singapore (then still a British colony).[4]

In late 1951 the Division was described as being 'a loose umbrella for five infantry brigades (each of which had up to four infantry battalions) strung across the western third of Java.' The post of commander of Tentara & Territorium III, the territorial military command encompassing west Java, was in effect synonymous with control of the division.[5]

Battalion 530 of the Siliwangi Division was involved in the 30 September Movement events in 1965. Following the later overthrow of Sukarno and the installation of the Indonesian "New Order" under Suharto, the Siliwangi Division's then commander, HR Dharsono, belonged to a faction dubbed by scholars as "New Order Radicals".[6] Together with Kemal Idris and with Sarwo Edhie Wibowo of KODAM II/Bukit Barisan (Sumatra), this group wanted political parties to be dismantled and replaced with non-ideological groups which emphasised development and modernisation.

"Factionalism within the army leadership, once a severe problem, no longer disrupted operations in the early 1990s. Traditional divisional identification continued to have some significance, however, especially in regard to that developed in the former Siliwangi, Diponegoro, and Brawijaya divisions, which covered western, central, and eastern Java, respectively, during the war of independence and the years immediately thereafter. The detachment of the Jakarta area from the control of the Siliwangi division and the restructuring of the army from a divisional basis to the territorial Kodam system diffused the powers of the divisions and eliminated warlordism." [7]

Territorial units

1. Korem 061/Surya Kencana (SK)

  • Kodim 0606/Bogor
  • Kodim 0607/Sukabumi
  • Kodim 0608/Cianjur
  • Kodim 0621/Kabupaten Bogor
  • Kodim 0622/Pelabuhan Ratu

2. Korem 062/Taruma Nagara (TN)

  • Kodim 0609/Kabupaten Bandung
  • Kodim 0610/Sumedang
  • Kodim 0611/Garut
  • Kodim 0612/Tasikmalaya
  • Kodim 0613/Ciamis

3. Korem 063/Sunan Gunung Jati (SGJ)

  • Kodim 0604/Karawang
  • Kodim 0605/Subang
  • Kodim 0614/Cirebon
  • Kodim 0615/Kuningan
  • Kodim 0616/Indramayu
  • Kodim 0617/Majalengka
  • Kodim 0619/Purwakarta
  • Kodim 0620/Kabupaten Cirebon

4. Korem 064/Maulana Yusuf (MY)

  • Kodim 0601/Pandeglang
  • Kodim 0602/Serang
  • Kodim 0603/Lebak
  • Kodim 0623/Cilegon

5. Kodim 0618/Kota Bandung (BS), sebuah Kodim yang berdiri sendiri di Kota Bandung

Combat / Combat Support Units

  • 310th Infantry Battalion/Kidang Kencana
  • 312th Infantry Battalion/Kala Hitam

References

  1. ↑ "Mutasi Jabatan Pati TNI, Dedi Kusnadi Thamim Jadi Pangdam Siliwangi". 19 August 2013.
  2. ↑ http://www.tniad.mil.id/kodam3/1kodam3sejarah.php
  3. ↑ Ken Conboy, Kopassus: Inside Indonesia's Special Forces, Equinox Publishing, Jakarta/Singapore, 2003, p.6
  4. ↑ Kahin (1952), p. 454-56
  5. ↑ Conboy, 2003, p.14
  6. ↑ Elson, Robert. Suharto: A Political Biography. UK: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. p. 163. ISBN 0-521-77326-1.
  7. ↑ Library of Congress Country Studies, Indonesia: The Army, 1993

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