Growing Pains

The government of the new United States of Indonesia was finding infancy troublesome. Some of its pains were caused by the difficulties of merging Indonesian Republican soldiers who had fought against the Dutch into one army with Indonesians who had fought for the Dutch. Other pains rose from the old issue of central sovereignty v. local autonomy.

Two weeks ago both difficulties fused in the revolt of 26-year-old Captain Andi Abdul Aziz, onetime paratrooper in the Dutch Indonesia corps. Aziz and his men, all recently transferred to the new U.S.I. army, were serving reluctantly under a Republican garrison commander in the state of East Indonesia. When they learned that the government planned to add nearly 1,000 Republican troops to those already in Macassar (pop. 85,000), Aziz and his men decided that their former enemies had gone too far.

With 150 of his own men plus some 600 deserters, Aziz swiftly overwhelmed Macassar's few Republican soldiers, and in 45 minutes held control of the city. He asserted that the central government was violating East Indonesian autonomy, warned government troops not to attempt a landing in Macassar.

The government promptly called on Aziz to report in person to Jakarta (formerly Batavia), the Indonesian capital. When he refused to budge, he was labeled a rebel. Government army units began to mobilize along the north Java coast, despite the fact that they had no ships other than Dutch to transport them to Macassar.

Last week Captain Aziz finally reconsidered, flew to Jakarta in a government plane. He had apparently been promised a safe conduct by government negotiators. The Indonesian Information Ministry said that Aziz was not a prisoner. The Indonesian Defense Ministry announced, howover, that he was a prisoner and would be court-martialed immediately. In Jakarta, the government at week's end was not quite sure who held Macassar.

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