Saskia Kouwenberg

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Saskia Kouwenberg receives the Ordem de Timor-Leste from Taur Matan Ruak (2019)

Saskia Kouwenberg is a Dutch independent human rights activist and journalist based in Australia . She was committed to various topics, such as the land rights of indigenous people, the independence of East Timor and the southern Moluccas , to anti-nuclear, anti-imperialist and anti-war campaigns. She worked with Amnesty International , the United Nations and the national independence movements of East Timor and the South Moluccas. Kouwenberg organized mediation meetings, but also invaded military bases to protest for their goals. As one of the 1000 PeaceWomen , she was nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Career

Kouwenberg grew up in Zundert , a village in North Brabant . Her parents were greengrocers. As early as her twelfth birthday, Kouwenberg said she wanted to become a peace activist when she grows up. At the age of 19 she went on a world tour and came back as a hippie . Above all, their experiences in India and Afghanistan made them rethink their previously bourgeois views. She now saw herself as a world citizen and wanted to fight against poverty and injustice. In the early 1980s she demonstrated against cruise missiles in Amsterdam. She helped set up the peace camp outside the NATO military base in Volkel and made a documentary about nuclear tests from New Zealand . Kouwenberg had previously worked in the film business. At this time she also began to campaign for the land rights of indigenous peoples.

Since Kouwenberg's father had fought for the Netherlands in Indonesia , Dutch guilt from colonial history became one of their main themes. Then she was asked by the Moluccas to get an idea of ​​the interreligious conflicts with a delegation in the region. On November 12, 1991, the Santa Cruz massacre broke out in Dili , the capital of East Timor, which has been occupied by Indonesia since 1975 . The British cameraman Max Stahl managed to record the action. A friend of Kouwenberg's was also killed in the massacre. Kouwenberg smuggled the film in her underwear from Dili, via Jakarta to the Netherlands. The film turned the sympathies of the world public to the side of the East Timorese. Solidarity movements arose around the world, such as the East Timor Action Network .

On April 12, 2017, Taur Matan Ruak , the president of the now independent East Timor, awarded Kouwenberg the medal of the Ordem de Timor-Leste . The award ceremony took place on November 28, 2019. On September 10th, Kouwenberg received the People's Prize for Solidarity ( tetum Premiu Solidariedade Popular Timor-Leste ) from the People's Committee of the Solidarity Conference in Dili. The award was presented by Sister Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz and the President of the November 12th Committee Gregório Saldanha .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e World People's Blot: Saskia Kouwenberg - Netherlands , January 3, 2009 , accessed November 28, 2019.
  2. ↑ Jill Jolliffe: Run for Your Life , 2014. Limited preview in Google Book Search.
  3. ↑ Paul R. Bartrop, Steven Leonard Jacobs: Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection [4 volumes]: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection , 2014. Limited preview in Google Book Search.
  4. ↑ Jornal da República: DECRETO DO PRESIDENTE DA REPÚBLICA N. ° 12/2017 de 12 de abril , accessed on November 28, 2019.
  5. ↑ Gabinete Primeiru-Ministru: S.Exa. Taur Matan Ruak: Lensa Photo: Komemorasaun Proklmasaun RDTL ba dala 44 , accessed on November 28, 2019.
  6. ↑ La'o hamutuk: People's Committee gives Solidarity Prize to Saskia . September 17, 2019 , accessed November 28, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Kouwenberg, Saskia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch independent human rights activist and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century