Communist insurgency in Sarawak

Communist insurgency in Sarawak
	Part of Formation of Malaysia, Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89) and Cold War
	; Armed soldiers guarding a group of Chinese villagers who were taking a communal bath in 1965 to prevent them from collaborating with the Communist guerillas and to protect the area from Indonesian infiltrators.
Date	c. December 1962 – 3 November 1990
Location	Sarawak, Malaysia
Result	Peace Declaration of Sri Aman in 1973; Dissolution of the Sarawak Communist Organisation/North Kalimantan Communist Party (SCO/NKCP).;
Belligerents
Anti-communist forces:; United Kingdom Sarawak (until 1963); Malaysia Sarawak (after 1963); Supported by:; Australia; Brunei; New Zealand; United States; Indonesia (after 1965) (Indo-Malay border)	Communist forces:; North Kalimantan Communist Party Sarawak People's Guerilla Force (SPGF); North Kalimantan People's Army (NKPA); Indonesia (1962–65) (military aid); Other support:; Brunei People's Party North Kalimantan National Army (NKNA); Malayan Communist Party Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA); Supported by:; China; North Vietnam (until 1975); North Korea
Commanders and leaders
Walter Walker (1962–1965); Tunku Abdul Rahman; Abdul Razak Hussein; Hussein Onn; Mahathir Mohamad; Stephen Kalong Ningkan ; Tawi Sli; Abdul Rahman Ya'kub; Abdul Taib Mahmud; Brigadier Othman Ibrahim; Brigadier Ungku Nazaruddin Suharto (from 1965); General A.J. Witono	Wen Ming Chyuan; Lam Wah Kwai; Bong Kee Chok; Ang Cho Teng; Wong Lieng Kui; Yang Chu Chung †; Yap Choon Hau †; Cheung Ah Wah Sukarno (until 1965); A. M. Azahari; Yassin Affandi; Chin Peng
Strength
1,500+ armed police and soldiers 10,000 (1968); 3,000+ Indonesian soldiers	600–1,000+ guerilla fighters Unknown numbers of Indonesian infiltrators
Casualties and losses
99 killed; 144 wounded ≈2,000 Indonesian soldiers killed or wounded (Communists claims & Approximates by Anonymous)	400–500 killed; 260 captured; 220 surrendered Hundreds Indonesian infiltrators killed
	≈19 civilians killed
	Statistics source:

The communist insurgency in Sarawak was an insurgency in Malaysia from 1962 to 1990, and involved the North Kalimantan Communist Party and the Malaysian Government. It was one of the two Communist insurgencies to challenge the former British colony of Malaysia during the Cold War. As with the earlier Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), the Sarawak Communist insurgents were predominantly ethnic Chinese, who opposed British rule over Sarawak and later opposed the merger of the state into the newly created Federation of Malaysia. The insurgency was triggered by the 1962 Brunei Revolt, which had been instigated by the left-wing Brunei People's Party in opposition to the proposed formation of Malaysia.

The Sarawak Communist insurgents were also supported by Indonesia until 1965, when the pro-Western President Suharto assumed power in a coup and ended the confrontation with Malaysia. During that period, the NKCP's two main military formations were created: the Sarawak People's Guerilla Force (SPGF) or Pasukan Gerilya Rakyat Sarawak (PGRS), and the North Kalimantan People's Army (NKPA) or the Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU). Following the end of the Confrontation, Indonesian military forces would co-operate with the Malaysians in counter-insurgency operations against their former allies.

The North Kalimantan Communist Party was formally established in March 1970 through the merger of several Communist and left-wing groups in Sarawak including the Sarawak Liberation League (SLL), the Sarawak Advanced Youths' Association (SAYA), and the NKPA. In response to the insurgency, the Malaysian federal government created several "controlled areas" along the Kuching-Serian road in Sarawak's First and Third Divisions in 1965. In addition, the Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Rahman Ya'kub also managed to convince many of the NKCP insurgents to enter into peace negotiations and lay down their arms between 1973 and 1974. Following the successful peace talks between the Malaysian government and the Malayan Communist Party in 1989, the remaining NKCP insurgents signed a peace agreement on 17 October 1990, which formally ended the insurgency.

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