25 January, 1964 Indon Activity in Pa Banger Area
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Pa Banger is an Iban longhouse five kilometres from the
Sarawak-Kalimantan border in 4th Division of Sarawak. At midday on
the 25 January about eleven men in jungle green uniform of the type
used by Indonesian regulars and armed with rifles approached the
longhouse. The soldiers informed the inhabitants of the longhouse
that they were Indonesian Regular soldiers. The people in the
longhouse were frightened and ran into the jungle nearby. About
half-an-hour later there were two loud explosions. From the jungle
edge the inhabitants of the longhouse saw it starting to
burn.
A villager reported to the police at LONG BANGER some four
kilometres to the north and a helicopter was utilised to take a
platoon to the village. Later in the afternoon tracks were found
leading back across the border towards the Indonesian kampong of Ba
Siok, which lies one kilometre to the east of the border. It was
known that there was a detachment of Indonesian Regular Army at Ba
Siok.
On the 1 January Security Forces operating near Pa Banger had found
and destroyed an Indonesian Army machine-gun post within Sarawak
territory, the crew of four all being killed in the action. The
attack on the longhouse at Pa Banger appears to have been carried
out in retaliation for the destruction of the machine-gun post. The
fact that the enemy were armed and uniformed and moved towards Ba
Siok after the incident confirms that they came from Ba Siok and
were members either of the Indonesian Regular or Irregular
Forces.
As a result of this incident a Malaysian Security Force platoon was
sent to live in Pa Banger. The local inhabitants decided to send
the women and children to the safety of a nearby villag,e while the
men would remain and harvest the crops.
30 January, 1964
On the 30 January a small military patrol, operating near Pa Banger
to ensure that there were no enemy in the area, made contact with
an enemy group of approximately 20 armed with one mortar, several
automatic weapons and rifles, all of which were fired in the
engagement.
There was an exchange of fire which lasted from 1105 hours until
1330 hours, but due to the dense secondary jungle, and thick
foliage, it was very difficult for the two groups to see each
other. As a result the firing was sporadic and inaccurate. The
Security Forces suffered no casualties. There were no known
casualties to the enemy. The enemy were in green uniforms and were
accompanied by one civilian in plain clothes who was apparently
acting as a guide. A follow-up patrol found the tracks of this
group leading southward across the border.
The presence of a guide in civilian clothes indicates that the
enemy group were presumably new to the area and unfamiliar with it
and therefore had to be guided into and out of Pa Banger. A few
empty cartridge cases were recovered from the area on all of which
the Indonesian ordnance factory stamp was clearly marked. The
initials PSM can be seen on most Indonesian equipment and is used
in a similar way to the British WD and arrow sign.
east malaysian iban and dayak having koppasus as bbq.
