Indonesian Ufology Timeline - Part 1 (1959 - 1967)

Back in November 2007, the BETA UFO community (by far one of the most reliable ufology group in Indonesia) published a book titled "A Decade of BETA UFO Community Indonesia - Tracking The UFO Phenomena". The book was written and compiled/edited by the group's Director - Nur Agustinus and BETA UFO's chief archivist - Gatot Tri R.

The 200 something pages book, written in Indonesian, is quite an interesting read. Other than just revealing the 'colorful' history of how BETA UFO first got formed, the book also highlighted some less known facets of the Indonesian ufology history. One of which, which is also my personal favorite, is the Indonesian ufology timeline featured on page 67 until 72, under the heading of '"Garis Waktu UFO Indonesia" .
Being a detail-minded freak I had honestly hoped that the timeline would've shown more detailed information than it was. Regardless, it is still an intriguing & commendable effort to track the development of ufology in Indonesia. Because of that I have decided to try translating it into English & added -whenever I could find it- more 'details' here n' there to make sure I don't just copy-paste other people's hard work (which is also why it ended up being a 2 part article). I have also tried to point out any possible details that might merit further researching should anyone care to do so. The result of this effort is as follows.

April 1959
Indonesian engineer - Kusudiarso Hadinoto visited the USAF Project Blue Book office at the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton OH. The seemingly semi-official visit was made with the company of Let. Col. Soedjono, of the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) [at the time, Soedjono was TNI-AU's official liaison officer at teh Indonesian embassy in wash. DC]. Both men were met by Project Blue Book's C.O. at the time - Maj. Robert B. Friend Jr. who gave them the opportunity to look at more than 5,000 UFO-related case files from the Project's archive. The Major also debriefed them about several evidence that supposedly came from UFO's and has since been proven as hoaxes.
The visit itself was made following the suggestion of TNI-AU's Let. Col. J. Salatun - the pioneer of Indonesian ufology. A foreword by Mr. Hadinoto on Salatun's seminal book about ufology, published about a year later, also revealed that the visit was made in connection to the writing of that particular book.

July 1959
A strange series of close encounters and sighting occured in the region of Alor & Pantar islands, In Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. The phenomena included an abduction of a local child by the name of Pangu, plus several amazing encounters between local islanders and a group of odd looking, reddish-skinned, silver-haired, blue-uniformed men as well as sighting of an oval shaped UFO prior to the disappearance of the "Men in Blue".
The story itself didn't get revealed until 17 years later when former Alor-Pantar regional police chief - Alwi Alnadad told the whole account to Indonesia's pioneering ufologist - J. Salatun.
It is interesting to note that the islanders, despite being quite traditional & reclusive, are actually not unaware of both foreigners as well as modern military uniform. {The confession given by the supposedly abducted child- Pangu, that his abductors were slightly taller than the German doctor who visited their village, and the fact that there has always been a Military territorial Command post (Kodam) in the vicinity of both islands are the facts I'm noting here.}

1960
TNI AU's Let.Col. - J. Salatun published his seminal book on ufology titled "Menjingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang" (Unveiling the secret of Flying Saucer). The book was published in Jakarta by local publisher - Pustaka Rakyat, and set the milestone for being the first ever locally written ufology book, in Indonesia. The book featured a quite detailed recount of major UFO sightings/EBE encounters from USA & Europe, as well as local cases from all over Indonesia. In total, there are 23 local cases filed in the 350 pages book. Something else worth notifying about this book is the fact that it was formerly endorsed by Indonesia's Prime Minister at the time - Djuanda & TNI AU's Chief of Staff - Air Marshall S. Suryadarma. The book also received a special mention in the NICAP's "The UFO Evidence" report/book.

October 1960
Indonesia's National News Agency (ANTARA) reported a UFO sighting around the city of Makassar, South Sulawesi. The sightings reportedly happened about 3 times a day, from the end of September until early October. ANTARA also tried to interview officials from the city's Hassanuddin (called 'Mandai' back then) airport regarding the sightings but it is not known whether it yielded any plausible "explanation" or not. All in all, this is basically the 1st ever news coverage of a UFO case by Indonesia's national mainstream media.

November 1963
Indonesia's National Aerospace Agency (LAPAN) was officially formed under Presidential Decree No. 236. J. Salatun, the nation's ufology pioneer, was then appointed as the agency's first director. Under his leadership, LAPAN (at least for a while, as it seemed to be) was also designated as a place for gathering/reporting data about UFO sightings in Indonesia.

September 1964
UFO sightings, visible both to the naked eye as well as in radar visuals, are reported from the 18th to the 24th of September. The phenomena occured around the skies of 3 cities in the east Jawa province - Surabaya, Malang & Bangkalan. The sighting also provoked the Indonesian military to open fire at the UFOs, since the country was -at the time- in anticipation of an all out armed confrontation with Malaysia (which was backed-up by its main allies - U.K. & Australia). The situation actually became so serious that, by October, Second Deputy-Prime Minister J. Leimena had to issue an official statement urging people to stay calm and not to stir up any kind of gossips or speculations regarding the sightings. The whole account itself was first disclosed by J. Salatun in his 1982 book - "UFO, One of the World's Current Problem".
Furthermore, J. Salatun also made a comment about this incident which has now been circulating in various UFO sites "Quotable Quotes" as can bee seen (among others) in bibliotecapleyades.net as well as in U.K's Prufos - police UFO database and The Ufo Evidence. The statement itself stressed that the incident was "...one of the most spectacular UFO incident in Indonesia..." as "...UFOs penetrated a well-defended area...for two weeks at a strecth, and each time were welcomed with perhaps the heaviest anti-aircraft barrage in history".
As an additional note, no known newspaper archive pertaining to this case has ever been found, although it is plausible that there must be some since it seemed to have stirred up such 'unrest' among the population that necessitated a formal statement from Mr. Leimena.

May 1967
TNI AU's ad interim Chief of Staff - Air Marshall Roesmin Nurjadin wrote a letter (dated 5/5/67) to one Yusake J. Matsumura, disclosing the Indonesian UFO phenomena. His official statement is that "UFOs sighted in Indonesia are identical with those sighted in other countries." He also added (seemingly in relation to the above mentioned incident) that "Sometimes they (the UFOs) pose a problem for our air defence and once we were obliged to fire on them." This statement can also be seen in the links to UFO sites above, although what I find very intriguing about the statement (that there are scarcely any mention about who Yusake J. Matsumura actually is) is not further corroborated on those links.

Strange Encounters : Alor & Pantar islands, Indonesia, 1959

For most people, the lesser Sunda islands in eastern Indonesia is probably better known for its two tourist magnets - Bali and Lombok. Few if any might know about the Alor archipelago, which is comprised of Alor and Pantar islands, at the easternmost end of the lesser Sunda cluster. Fewer still would probably know about the strange close encounter phenomenon that occurred in those islands, way back in 1959.

It took about 17 long years before the story itself was retold by the then retired Alor islands regional police chief – Alwi Alnadad, to Indonesia’s pioneering ufologist – R.J. Salatun. It has since then been documented in Salatun’s seminal book ’UFO,Salah Satu Masalah Dunia Masa Kini’ (UFO, One of The World's Current Problem) from which most of the following information is based upon.

Strangers in Blue

Somewhere in early July 1959, residents of Alor and Pantar islands begun their shocking discovery of a group of strange looking visitors on the islands. They were reportedly humanoid-looking beings, with an average height of 1,80 meters, who had reddish skin hue and silvery-white wavy hair. The visitors were also reported to be wearing a ‘peculiar’ attire that consisted of dark blue uniforms, with long sleeves and high collars, and black boots. They were also seen carrying grey metallic cylinders which were tugged in on their belts.

With such uncanny appearance, it was obvious that the strangers would attract attention and curiosity from the simple islanders. Unfortunately, the interaction that henceforth ensued between them were quite fearful (if not even violent) rather than just strange or bewildering…
In one event, one of the strange visitor was seen investigating something which prompted suspicious islanders to surround and attacked the entity with arrows. It turned out that the arrows couldn’t injure the visitor at all, who then escaped without a trace simply by jumping high over the heads of the surrounding islanders.

The strange visitors were also seen in the neighboring island of Pantar, west of Alor. Here, a whole village was practically terrorized by a small group of the blue uniformed strangers. It all begun when six of the strangers came prowling around into the village after sunset, seemingly in search of something. One of them, a bearded figure, went so far as to open one of the villagers’ house window, just to observe the situation inside. Their presence caused so much fear among the villagers that none dared leave their houses all through the night.

Up Close and Personal

Erstwhile in the eastern part of Alor, a few islanders reported a much more up close interaction with the blue strangers. One such case was recounted by a villager, living to the east of the island’s capital, Kalabahi, who had an intriguing personal encounter with the visitors. The unsuspecting man found himself surrounded by a group of blue uniformed strangers, right after he had climbed an Enau tree. They were talking among themselves in a language unknown to the man, and had paralyzed him with one of the metallic cylinder that they carried on their belts. One of them later stepped forward and showed the man a clock-like gadget that amazed him, since it was able to show a scenery that was not only far from where they were but also blocked-off by dense forest and towering hills.

Elsewhere in the east of Kalabahi, a 6 years old child, by the name of Pangu, gave his account of an abduction, after he went missing for 24 hours. The child was first found in a confused state, in the middle of a field, before being able to tell the story. He later said that he was taken to the forest by a group of the strange blue-uniformed visitors. He also claimed to have undergone medical examinations while he was in the woods with the strangers and that they had, at one point, offered him to have any kind of food he wanted. Pangu also recalled an interesting point about the visitors' height as being slightly taller than a German doctor that once visited his village.

Shooting Thin Air

Reports and stories of the strange visitors finally caught the attention of Regional Police Chief – Alwi Alnadad. Taking a group of policemen armed with Garrand riffles and Thompson machine guns, he then set out to investigate the site, east of Kalabahi, where the strangers supposedly appeared. There, Alwi and his men prepared an ambush.

Alas, at around midnight, the strangers did appear and Alwi men’s fired their shots from a distance of about 13 meters. Strangely enough, they later found no traces of blood let alone a corpse on the scene. All that was left were bullet ridden trees and footprints that vanished after trailing for 5 meters.

Following the shooting incident, many residents on both Alor and Pantar Island witnessed what could possibly be the blue strangers ‘farewell’ flight. It was a strange white glimmering egg-shaped object that was seen flying across the sea, from West to East. Ever since that sighting the stranger in blue were never seen again in the vicinity of both islands…

A Note On Sources

The strange EBE/UFO encounter and sighting in the Alor archipelago, as fascinating as it is, was never an easy ‘story’ to corroborate independently. Other than just the time factor, there is also the problem of supporting documents. To put it plain and simple, other than the account given personally and orally by Alwi Alnadad to J. Salatun, no police document/report was ever found. Nevertheless, there are some things that lend some credibility to the story.

First and foremost is the credibility of J. Salatun himself. The man is a historical figure in the Indonesian aviation as well as Air Force history. He has joined the ‘embryonic’ national air force since its conception in 1946, before ending his military career as a Vice Air-Marshall (Major General) of the Indonesian National Air Force (TNI-AU). He was also once a minister in the Indonesian 2^nd Dwikora-cabinet (March-July 1966) and founder of the National Institute of Space and Aviation (LAPAN) in 1963. He was also the first person to wrote a serious book concerning UFO phenomena in Indonesia – “Menjingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang” (Revealing the Secret of Flying Saucer) back in 1960, when he was still an Air Force Colonel. A book that also received a special mention in the NICAP document, published in 1964.

Secondly is the sad yet historical fact that Indonesia has never been very keen in keeping a good measure of its historical documents preserved. Most of the best historical documentations about this country are available elsewhere, in Europe, Australia or even North America (such as the Ohio University’s archives). Other than that, Alor & Pantar Islands were also quite remote back in the 1950’s (if not even up till now). In those days, proper government/military agencies documentation is already ‘rare’ in the less remote areas, such as in Java Island, let alone in the Alor Archipelago. Which would also account for the lengthy span of time before the story was finally revealed by Alwi Alnadad to Salatun.

Another point to note is that Salatun’s book that was printed in 1982 (it’s out of print now) would’ve otherwise been lost in oblivion if it weren’t for the keen & diligent effort to preserve it online, by a group of Indonesian UFO enthusiasts & researchers called BETA- UFO. In fact, the first online account of the Alor case in Wikipedia, was made by the group’s own Director - Nur Agustinus, who have also helped provide most of the documentary materials used in this writing. As brief as it was the Wiki account itself has managed to made its way into various UFO forums, including one in abovetopsecret.com/ATS (by the Alien & UFO forum's expert - Internos).

This article was first published in abovetopsecret.com, on 23/11/08. All drawings are artist's rendition from Kuncung magazine.

References:
J.Salatun's 1982 boook (in pdf file)
TNI AU's official account of J.Salatun last rank
The Dwikora cabinet list of ministers
Indonesian aviation pioneers
LAPAN official website
NICAP's The UFO Evidence
BETA UFO website
Nur Agustinus's Wiki entry
Internos' post on ATS