History
The town acted as a Dutch penal colony during the period when Indonesia was a Dutch colony. [2]
Under Indische Staatsregeling Article 37, "those who can be considered by the Government to disturb or have disturbed the public peace and order will be without any legal proceedings exiled for an indefinite period to a specially appointed place" [2] were sent to Tanahmerah. Dr. Sutan Sjahrir, first prime minister of the Indonesian Republic, described the political prisoners thus exiled as being in "profound spiritual misery" and "permanently broken in spirit". [3]
In 1942, the Netherlands East Indies government-in-exile (in Australia), fearing partisan armies, which would prejudice the postwar reimposition of Dutch colonial rule in the Indies, organised for the prisoners to be brought to Australia, to be interned as prisoners of war. [1] This did not fit entirely well with the host country, and on 7 December 1943, the Tanah Merah prisoners were freed from their Australian prison camps. [1]
Lockwood (1975) [1] considers the evacuation of these prisoners to Australia (and their subsequent freedom within Australia) to be a vital catalyst in the launching of the boycott on Dutch shipping (the Black Armada) at the end of the second world war and in the subsequent creation of the Republic of Indonesia.
The Indonesian National Revolution, also known as the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' transfer of sovereignty over the Dutch East Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia at the end of 1949.
Mohammad Hatta was an Indonesian statesman, nationalist, and independence activist who served as the country's first vice president. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno, fought for the independence of Indonesia from the Netherlands. Hatta was an important figure during the Indonesian national awakening and during the national revolution, as a youth he was politically active both in the Netherlands and the Indies, which led him to be imprisoned in the Boven Digoel concentration camp for his activism, he also played a crucial part in the proclamation of Indonesian independence, being second the person to sign the declaration besides Sukarno, thus naming him as one of the founders of Indonesia.
The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
Sutan Sjahrir was an Indonesian politician, and revolutionary independence leader, who served as the first Prime Minister of Indonesia, from 1945 until 1947. Previously, he was a key Indonesian nationalist organizer in the 1930s and 1940s. Unlike some of his colleagues, he did not support the Japanese during the Japanese occupation and fought in the resistance against them. He was considered to be an idealist and an intellectual.
The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. It was one of the most crucial and important periods in modern Indonesian history.
HajiAgus Salim was an Indonesian journalist, diplomat, and statesman. He served as Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1947 and 1949.
This is the timeline of Indonesian National Revolution.
The Malino Conference was organised by the Dutch in the Sulawesi town of Malino from 16 to 25 July 1946 as part of their attempt to arrange a federal solution for Indonesia. From the end of World War II, Indonesian Republicans had been trying to secure Indonesian Independence from the Dutch colonial control.
Boven Digoel Regency is an inland regency (kabupaten) in the northeastern part of the Indonesian province of South Papua. It was split off from Merauke Regency on 12 November 2002. It is bordered to the south by the residual Merauke Regency, to the west by Mappi Regency, and to the north by the province of Highland Papua. At the same time, to the east lies the international border with Papua New Guinea.
Boven-Digoel was a Dutch concentration camp for political prisoners operated in the Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1947. It was located in a remote area on the banks of the river Digul, in what is now Boven Digoel Regency in South Papua, Indonesia. The site was chosen in 1928 for the internal exile of Indonesians implicated in the 1926 and 1927 communist uprisings in Java and Sumatra. Indonesian nationalists not associated with the Indonesian Communist Party were subsequently also sent there.
Bersiap is the name given by the Dutch to a violent and chaotic phase of the Indonesian National Revolution following the end of World War II. The Indonesian word bersiap means 'get ready' or 'be prepared'. The Bersiap period lasted from August 1945 to November 1947. In Indonesia, other terms aside from bersiap are commonly used, such as gedoran in Depok, ngeli in Banten and surrounding West Java, and gegeran and dombreng in Central Java.
Asia Raya was a newspaper published in the Dutch East Indies during the Japanese occupation.
Suriname was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1954 and 1975. The country had full autonomy, except in areas of defence and foreign policy, and participated on a basis of equality with the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands itself in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country became fully independent as the Republic of Suriname on 25 November 1975.
Bilateral relations exist between Australia and the Netherlands. Australia has an embassy in The Hague. The Netherlands has an embassy in Canberra. The two countries communicate and cooperate on a range of issues, including counterterrorism, climate change, human rights, and the Millennium Development Goals. In 2001 the countries signed an agreement on social security for those who have lived or worked in both countries.
The Black Armada was a name applied to Dutch merchant and military vessels which were prevented from sailing to the newly proclaimed independent Indonesia from Australian ports due to waterfront strikes or 'black bans' by maritime trade unions from 1945 to 1949.
The Netherlands Indies Government Information Service (NIGIS) was a civil secret service and propaganda organisation based in Australia, during and after World War II. NIGIS was affiliated with the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) and the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA).
Rupert Ernest Lockwood was an Australian journalist and communist activist.
Camp Victory, also known as Camp Casino, was a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) base and prisoner of war camp, used during World War II, near Casino, New South Wales, Australia. The Dutch government-in-exile was given extraterritorial rights over the management and conduct of the base. It was named Camp Victory by the Dutch government in the hopes of a swift recapture of the Dutch East Indies. The camp consisted mostly of tents, with only a few buildings for administrative, ablutions and recreational purposes.
Aliarcham (c.1901-1933) was a Sarekat Islam and Indonesian Communist Party party leader, activist and theoretician in the Dutch East Indies. He was a major figure behind the PKI's turn to more radical policies in the mid-1920s. He was arrested by Dutch authorities in 1925 and exiled to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp, where he died in 1933. He became a well-known Martyr, especially among Communists and Indonesian nationalists.
The Indonesian People's Movement, better known as Gerindo, was a left-wing and nationalist political party in the Dutch East Indies which existed from 1937 to 1942. It had modest goals and was largely cooperative to the colonial administration. More strongly anti-fascist than anti-colonialist, the party sought to support the colonial government in opposing fascism, especially Japanese fascism.
Indonesia