Subandrio

Subandrio (September 15, 1914 - July 3, 2004), Indonesian politician, was Foreign Minister of Indonesia under President Sukarno. Removed from office following the failed 1965 coup, he spent 29 years in prison.

The spelling "Subandrio" has been official in Indonesia since 1947 but the older spelling Soebandrio is still sometimes used.

Subandrio was born in Kepanjen, East Java, and educated at the Sekolah Tinggi Kedokteran Jakarta (GHS) in Jakarta. As a medical student he was active in the movement for independence. During World War II, while practising medicine, he worked with anti-Japanese resistance forces. After the war he was appointed secretary-general of the information ministry.

After 1945 Subandrio became a supporter of the nationalist leader Sukarono, and was sent as Sukarno's special envoy in Europe, establishing an information office in London in 1947. From 1954 to 1956, he was ambassador to the Soviet Union. During this time he developed strong left wing views, although he was never a Communist as later alleged.

In 1956 Sukarno recalled him to Jakarta to become secretary-general of the foreign ministry, and then Foreign Minister. In 1960 he was also made Second Deputy Prime Minister, and in 1962 he was appointed Minister for Foreign Economic Relations. He held all three posts, and also acted as intelligence chief, until 1966.

Subandrio was the main architect of Indonesia's left-wing foreign policy during this period, including the alliance with the People's Republic of China and the policy of "Confrontation" with Malaysia, which created great hostility between Indonesia and the western powers, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom.

In September 1965 a group of left-wing army and air force officers, with the support of the powerful Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), attempted a military coup against the Army leadership, in which six top Army generals were killed. The coup failed, and in the resulting anti-Communist backlash the conservative General Suharto came to effectively control the government. Sukarno tried to retain Subandrio in power, but in 1966 he was forced to agree to his dismissal.

Subandrio was sentenced to death by the Extraordinary Military Court on charges of being involved in the "30th of September Movement," although there was no real evidence that Subandrio knew of the coup attempt in advance or played any part in it (he was in Sumatra at the time). This sentence was afterwards reduced to life imprisonment. He served until 1995, when he was released due to ill health. He died in Jakarta in 2004.