Ahmad Yani

Ahmad Yani (19 June 1922 – 1 October 1965) was the Minister/Commander of the Army (Indonesian: Menteri/Panglima Angkatan Darat) , a position equivalent to the modern Chief of Staff of Indonesian Army. who was killed by members of the 30 September Movement during an attempt to kidnap him from his house.

Ahmad Yani was born in Jenar, Purworejo, Dutch East Indies on 19 June 1922 to the Wongsoredjo family that worked at a sugar factory run by a Dutch owner. In 1927, Yani moved with his family to Batavia, where his father worked for a Dutch general. There, Yani finished his primary education, leaving high school in 1940 to undergo compulsory military service in the colonial Army of the Dutch East Indies, initially training as a navy seaman. He studied military topography in Malang, East Java, but this was interrupted by the Japanese invasion in 1942, forcing Yani and his family back to Central Java.

In 1943, he joined the Japanese-sponsored PETA army, and underwent further training in Magelang as an artillery officer and then as a platoon commander; he moved to Bogor, West Java for the latter, after which he returned to Magelang as an instructor.

After Independence in 1945, Yani joined the army of the fledgling republic and fought against the Dutch. During the first months after the Declaration of Independence, Yani formed a battalion with himself as commander, and led it to victory against the British at Magelang. Yani followed this up with a successful defence of Magelang against a Dutch attempt to retake the city, earning him the nickname of the "Savior of Magelang". He was also noted in this period for the series of guerrilla offensives he launched in early 1949 to distract the Dutch, whilst Lieutenant Colonel Suharto prepared for the 1 March General Offensive targeting Yogyakarta and its suburbs.

After Indonesia's independence was formally recognised by the Netherlands in 1949, Yani was transferred to Tegal, Central Java. In 1952, he was called back into action to fight Darul Islam, a group of rebels seeking to establish a theocracy. To deal with the rebels, Yani formed the special forces group, the Banteng Raiders (now the 400th Raider Infantry Battalion, Kodam IV/Diponegoro). Over the next three years, Darul Islam forces in Central Java suffered successive defeats.

In December 1955, Yani left for the United States to study at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Returning in 1956, Yani was transferred to Army Headquarters in Jakarta where he became a staff member for General Abdul Haris Nasution. At Army Headquarters, Yani served as Logistics Assistant to the Army Chief of Staff, before becoming Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Organization and Personnel.

In August 1958, he commanded Operation 17 August against the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia in West Sumatra. His troops managed to recapture Padang and Bukittinggi, and this success led to his being promoted to 2nd deputy Army chief of staff on 1 September 1962, and then Army Chief of Staff on 28 June 1962 (thus automatically becoming a member of Cabinet), replacing General Nasution, who was appointed Minister of Defence.

As President Sukarno was closer to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in the early 1960s, the staunchly anticommunist Yani became very wary of the PKI, especially after the Party declared its support for the establishment of a people’s militia, with Sukarno trying to impose his Nasakom (Nationalism-Religion-Communism) doctrine on the military. Both Yani and Nasution procrastinated when ordered by Sukarno on 31 May 1965 to prepare plans to arm the people.