Report of Riggs

The Jakarta Post published a short report on June 4, 1994, regarding a hand-over by the Indonesian Military to the British government of the remains of Sub-Lt. J. Gregor Riggs, who was killed on Merapas Island, Riau, on Nov. 5, 1944.

In your report I think you incorrectly quoted Col. Brian Nicholson of the British embassy as having said that Riggs was "shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire from Merapas on Nov. 5, 1944." You also reported that Riggs "was found and buried by Achap, now 72, shortly after his plane crashed."

Riggs was one of the 23 members of Operation Rimau, a combined Australian-British seaborne commando attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore harbor secretly launched by canoe from the Riau archipelago in September 1944. The attack was led by an Englishman, Lt. Col. Ivan Lyon, and the attack group and their equipment was transported to Riau by the British submarine HMS Porpoise from Western Australia.

Despite numerous setbacks the attack was successfully completed. However in attempting to escape all members of the group were eventually killed by the Japanese or died of wounds. Included were 10 captured by the Japanese and later executed at Bukit Timah, Singapore on July 7, 1945 after a sham "military trial"; two died from Japanese maltreatment as prisoners of the Japanese in Dili; one died in captivity as a result of a Japanese "medical experiment" in Surabaya; and the rest died during the months of October-November 1944 during skirmishes with Japanese forces on islands in the Riau archipelago, including Lt. Col. Lyon.

Gregor Riggs was shot dead in one of these skirmishes on Merapas Island on Nov. 5, 1944. He was buried by local resident Abdul Achap, who was in 1981 able to locate the gravesite for an Australian army officer investigating the case.

To avoid repetition of tragedy, it is important that history is told accurately and honestly.

RADEN DUNBAR

Bandung, W. Java