Indonesian Civil War (Mercbl)

The Indonesian Civil War was a three sided conflict lasting from 2043-2047 in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia, between the Indonesian Government supported by Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar; the Rising Sun of Islam (RSI) supported by Brunei and Malaysia; and the New Guinean Independence Movement, supported by Australia, the Philippines and the United States Of America. It resulted in the collapse of the Rising Sun of Islam, and the independence of the Republic of United New Guinea. The fall of the RSI largely signaled the end of large scaled fundamentalist Islamic movements that had been so prominent in the first half of the 21st century.

2043
On the 21st of July 2043, having grown from resentment that the rich Hindu minority was perceived to hold the majority of power in Indonesia, an Islamic Jihadist group organised a revolt in the city of Palu. Within a week the entire city was under their control, as the Indonesian government had no chance to react to the surprise uprising. This was quickly followed by uprisings in Makassar, Gorontalo and Manado by the group now calling themselves the Rising Sun Of Islam.

The rebellion was successful in Makassar and Gontalo but arriving Indonesian soldiers from New Guinea put out the Manado uprising after three days of fighting throughout the city. The Indonesian Government began moving troops to the island of Sulawesi with troops arriving on the southern part of the island on the 13th of August and moving to take back the city of Makassar. However they were attacked and effectively destroyed by rebels now supported by a corrupt wing of the Indonesian army stationed in Sulawesi. The government forces were pushed back to Tanete where they recieved reinforcements by early September, as the rebels now numbered nearly 85,000 after retaking Manado.

In late September, Malaysia began to secretly send arms and supplies to the rebels, in order to weaken their enemy Indonesia and gain an Islamic ally in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Vietnam had begun to support Indonesia sending large amounts of arms and supplies to the Indonesian army, as well as an expeditionary force of 5,000 soldiers to combat the rebellion. Suppression of non-Muslim peoples in the rebel controlled parts of Sulawesi was brutal, but they were offered better treatment for themselves and their family if they joined the rebellion as a separate fighting force known as Kekuatan Baru Indonesia, growing the rebels to 91,000, and allowing them, along with the Malaysian supplies, to hold out into December, holding all of West Sulawesi, Gorontalo and North Sulawesi, along with most of South Sulawesi and half of Central Sulawesi.

2044
In January of 2044 Indonesia began to push the rebels back in South Sulawesi, though the rest of Central Sulawesi fell to the rebels. On the 23rd of January, they attacked the major rebel base of Makassar, and by the 1st of February, the front stretched from Makassar to Watampone. Quickly, the rebel forces moved to secure the rest of the island, striking at Southeast Sulawesi but they were unable to move very far south due to difficult terrain. Needing to cause a distraction a rebel force was sent to attack Tinobu, less resistance than expected occurred and so the town fell into rebel hands, seeing a weakpoint in the governments defenses, 15,000 troops moved through the town to encircle the Government forces holding the line on the west coast of Southeast Sulawesi. The forces were discovered just before they reached their target, but the enemy forces, not wanting to be encircled, retreated and were chased through Southeast Sulawesi.

By April, with the rebel army approaching 115,000 in number, 50,000 Government troops evacuated across the Gulf of Boni to South Sulawesi.

As more and more troops were sent to Sulawesi, unrest began to brew in Port Moresby, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets to protest against the Indonesian Government, on the 2nd of May Australia declared it’s support of an independent New Guinea, and on the 4th of May 2044, an armed rebel group calling itself the Liberation Front of New Guinea (LFNG) exchanged fire on the outskirts of Port Moresby with police and troops remaining in New Guinea. Other groups appeared across the island, notably in Lae and along the Owen Stanley Range. In Port Moresby the armed forces were pushed out of the city and regrouped in the jungles north of the city. As tear gas was released on protesters, Australia began to mobilise it’s forces in Darwin and Brisbane. On the 27th of May an Australian ultimatum to Indonesia was sent, threatening war if Indonesia refused to release Papua New Guinea. Indonesia ignored this and on the 30th of May Australian forces departed for New Guinea. In the following days, New Zealand, Timor-Leste and Bougainville followed Australia’s lead and declared war.

Meanwhile tensions were heating up on the island of Borneo, Indonesia discovered that Malaysia had been funding the rebel groups who now controlled all of Sulawesi, but already dealing with two rebellions and Australia, they were reluctant to declare war. In the end they didn’t have to. Malaysian troops crossed the Indonesian border on the 12th of June triggering declarations of war from Myanmar and Thailand, but it didn’t matter, Indonesian defenses were minimal on the west side of the island, with the majority in the east, defending against a possible naval attack from the rising sun.

Meanwhile, in the East, 50,000 Australian troops were fighting alongside a LFNG force of almost the same size against 75,000 with Australian air support the rebels took Port Moresby and began to set up a line across the Owen Stanley Range from Port Moresby to Lae. The Indonesian half of the island of Timor was also overrun by a joint Australian and Timorese force giving Australia aerial superiority over the Sunda and Banda Seas.

As the Thai and Burmese militaries mobilised against Malaysia, the kingdom of Brunei declares war on both of them. Initially the Malaysians had experienced success and took several strategic locations along the coasts, but they were now forced to stop as parts of the force were brought back to defend against the new attackers. The fighting slowed for several weeks as the Australians were regrouping in New Guinea, the Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese armies grouping in Thailand and the Malaysians preparing for their next attack. On the 1st of August a Thai force moved into Malaysia moving to quickly strike Kuala Lumpur, however their Burmese counterparts were not ready to move forward and with brilliant leadership by a young Malaysian general by the name of Najib Tengku, almost the entire force was encircled. The Thai’s retreated but 5,000 were still taken prisoner. Following this Malaysia strengthened it’s conscription laws, making all able-bodied citizens between the ages of 16 and 35 join the armed forces.

In August the Philippines began selling arms and medical supplies to the LFNG, allowing a second front to open around Wewak in September severely hurting Indonesian supplies. In response to this, Indonesia began to withdraw troops from Borneo, leaving the island to Malaysia and increasingly their forces on the island of Papua New Guinea to 200,000.

Having occupied all of Borneo by early December, Malaysia began a strategy of bombing Indonesian cities from the captured airfields. Meanwhile the Malaysian general Najib Tengku began to push back the pro-Indonesian forces on the Malay peninsula in Operation Rising Tide. By the end of 2044 they had been pushed back to Maliwan.

2045
Having constructed a number of of airfields on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia responded to increased bombing raids against Java by beginning their own bombing campaign against the Malaysian mainland, doing severe damage to Kuala Lumpur, George Town and Malacca.

Following the inauguration of Saxon Musk as President of the USA, Australia attempted to try and convince President Musk to intervene where his predecessor (Athena Salman) had refused. Musk agreed and on the 27th of February the USA declared war on Indonesia. Soon, a force of 80,000 Americans were on their way to New Guinea.

By mid May Indonesian resistance had been essentially eliminated on the island of New Guinea by the overwhelming combined forces of the LFNG, and its supporting coalition; in particular Australia and the United States. Seeing this, the Indonesian high command decided to gamble on enacting Operation Langit Ungu, a proposed naval and airborne invasion of the island of Timor, which, if successful, would have enabled Indonesia to capture  alrge number of mostly Australian prisoners and seize equipment belonging to the coalition nations and potentially strike the Australian city of Darwin with bombing raids, as well as preventing the coalition from advancing any further along the islands of the Indonesian archipelago. However Operation Langit Ungu failed, leading to the deaths of 10,000 Indonesian soldiers and just as many more being taken prisoner. Following this failure, Indonesia agreed to sign a peace treaty armistice with the coalition nations.

On the 18th of June 2045 representatives of Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Bougainville, Timor-Leste, the USA and the LFNG met in the Australian city of Darwin to sign the Treaty of Darwin, which ended the war in New Guinea. This treaty would give independence to the Republic of United New Guinea, make Indonesia give up all claims to the island of New Guinea, stated that Timor-Leste would annex the Indonesian portions of the island of Timor and Indonesia agreed to lease Kabaruang Island to Australia indefinitely. In Darwin, US President Saxon Musk and Australian Prime Minister Jonathan Gillam also met to discuss (among other things) the possibility of supporting Indonesia against the RSI. While Prime Minister Gillam expressed his reluctance to intervene on the behalf of the Indonesian government due to the now deep distrust between the two nations, it was agreed that the USA would be free to do so without criticism if they desired.

Following the signing of the treaty of Darwin, the leaders of Malaysia and the Rising Sun of Islam realised that with Indonesia no longer fighting a two front war, the full might of Indonesia and its allies could be brought to bear upon them. Following this realisation, it was decided that a decisive victory against Indonesia would be needed if they were to win their independence. It was decided that the RSI and Malaysia would begin a massive bombing campaign against the island of Java and especially the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, hoping to force the Indonesian government to surrender. On the 6th of August Malaysian bombers launched an all-out assault on Indonesian airbases on Java and even some bases on the island of Sumatra, crippling the Indonesian airforce. Shortly following this bombing raids and missile strikes began to rain down on both Javan military and civilian targets. Several Indonesian allies attempted to provide support by stationing airwings on nearby islands but most were attacked en route and destroyed.