Alexander Evert Kawilarang

Who was Alexander Evert Kawilarang?

Alex Kawilarang is an Indonesian military officer, a freedom fighter and founder of the military unit 'Kesko TT' in 1952, the founding name of the now famous Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus. However in 1959 he resigned his post as Military attaché to the United States to become a General in the separatist Permesta movement where he encountered Kopassus as his opponent.

Colonel Kawilarang was born in Meester Cornelis in the Dutch East Indies, and died in Jakarta, Indonesia. His father Major A.H.H. Kawilarang was a professional soldier in the Dutch colonial army. Both his parents are from the Minahasa. His first Indo wife is Nelly van Amden with whom he had a daughter and a son.