S. P. Situmorang

General Susilo Pratam Situmorang (February 1, 1899 - January 4, 1963) was a Cadasan military officer who played a leading role in the 1957 Cadasan coup d'etat. The leader of the coup, Situmorang became president of Cadasa from 1957 to 1963 until his death from complications from diabetes.

Bio
Born to a poor family, he enrolled in the Academi Militar Cadasa at the age of 18. He was assigned to the Cadasan Army after his graduation. Situmorang rose above the ranks and in 1950 was awarded the rank of General.

Starting in 1955 or 1956, Situmorang and several other military officers and CIA agents planned the 1957 coup that would overthrow the leftist Tan Yeng Sen. They succeeded and on March 17, Situmorang became president. He declared martial law and freedoms and civil liberties were curtailed. In 1958, he ordered the Cadasan invasion of Baraltamuri. Situmorang was known to be racist against Baraltamurians, and engineered the Baraltamuri cultural genocide, where many Baraltamurian cultural traditions were illegal, such as speaking Tufur (Baraltamuri's native language) in formal or education settings.

The harshest period of martial law in Cadasa was under Situmorang's term. He appointed E.K. Tam, a psychopath, as commander of Komilcad, the secret police. A third of martial law deaths came from the period of 1957 to 1962.

In 1960, Situmorang was nearly assassinated while visiting in. Outside of the Madrid–Barajas airport, shots were fired, minorly injuring Situmorang's wife but not him. The perpetrator is still unknown.

In 1963, he died while vacationing in Kuala Lumpur. He was replaced by his vice-president Aarush Chiu, who continued authoritarian rule in Cadasa until the late 1980s.