Yapto Soerjosoemarno

Who is Yapto Soerjosoemarno?

Yapto Soerjosoemarno, full name KRT. Yapto Soelistyo Soerjosoemarno, S.H, is an Indonesian politician. He was born 16 December 1949, in Surakarta, Central Java.

His father, Ir. KPN. Soetarjo Soerjosoemarno, is a member of the Mangkunegaran Javanese nobility. Soerjosoemarno is also an expert in topography and geodesy who finished his education in the Netherlands. His mother, Dolly Zegerius, is a competitive contract bridge player, and a naturalised Indonesian citizen of Dutch Jewish descent.

Yapto Soerjosoemarno is known as the leader of Pemuda Pancasila, an organization of semi-official political gangsters that supported the New Order military dictatorship of Soeharto. Indeed, Pemuda Pancasila played an important role in supporting Soeharto's military coup in 1965: they ran death squads for the Indonesian army, murdering thousands of alleged communists and Chinese Indonesians across the province of North Sumatra. The leaders of these death squads, Effendy Nasution, Jan Pahrum Lubis, Roshiman and others selected Yapto to lead Pancasila Youth in 1980. In addition to leading Pancasila Youth, Yapto today leads a political party formally affiliated with Pancasila Youth called the Patriot Party. He is also a lawyer and owns a law firm in South Jakarta, Indonesia. The Patriot Party is known for its loyalty to the family of former Indonesian President, the late General Suharto.