Rawagede massacre
The Rawagede massacre was a war crime committed by the Dutch colonial army, the Royal Dutch Indian Army, on December 9, 1947 in the Indonesian village of Rawagede (today: Bolongsari in West Java ). The crime took place in connection with the Indonesian War of Independence and the Dutch military operation Operatie Product . After the end of World War II and the end of the Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Dutch armed forces found themselves in combat with armed forces of the Republic of Indonesia and Indonesian militias. The Netherlands tried to bring Indonesia back under colonial rule. In the Rawagede massacre, almost all the men from the village were murdered by the Dutch military after they were captured, because the people from the village refused to tell where the Indonesian independence fighter Lukas Kustario was hiding. The number of murder victims is controversial among historians. A number of 150 to 431 is assumed.
Although the Dutch Army General Simon Hendrik Spoor demanded that the officer in charge, Major Alphons Wijnen, be prosecuted, no Dutch investigation was opened. A United Nations report dated January 12, 1948 called the killings "deliberate and merciless" (deliberate and merciless).
On September 8, 2008, ten survivors of the massacre publicly held the Netherlands responsible for the crime. In a letter dated November 24, 2008, the Attorney General of the Netherlands expressed his deepest regret over the massacre. However, he said the crime was time barred. This led to protests from the Parliament of the Netherlands and also from journalists from the NRC Handelsblad newspaper , who claimed that war crimes are never statute-barred.
In December 2009 the ten survivors decided to sue the Dutch state. They were represented by lawyers Liesbeth Zegveld and Anne Scheltema Beduin.
The court ruled on September 14, 2011 that the crime, due to its extraordinary nature, was not subject to a statute of limitations and held the Dutch state fully responsible for the damage.
After a settlement, the plaintiffs and widows of the murdered men were awarded EUR 20,000 per person. The Netherlands also undertook to apologize.
On December 9, 2011, Tjeerd de Zwaan , the Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia, said: “We remember the members of your family and those of your fellow villagers who died 64 years ago as a result of the actions of the Dutch military ... On behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize I care for the tragedy that took place. "
Only nine relatives are still alive and each will receive 20,000 euros. However, no date was set for the receipt of the money.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://vorige.nrc.nl/international/opinion/article2073796.ece/No_statute_of_limitations_on_Dutch_past_in_Indonesia
- ^ A b NRC Handelsblad - Widows sue Netherlands over Indonesia massacre
- ^ NRC Handelsblad - No statute of limitations on Dutch past in Indonesia
- ^ RNW - Court: Dutch accountable for war crimes in Indonesia
- ^ Dutch state apologizes for 1947 Indonesia massacre . December 9, 2011. Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved on January 29, 2014.