Dutch War Crimes
Sep 9th, 2008, in History, Opinion, by LairedionLairedion on the Dutch state being sued over war crimes at Rawagede, West Java.
Dutch State sued by Indonesians
On Monday 8 September 2008 10 Indonesian survivors of Dutch post WWII violence have sued the Dutch State for the assassination of their family members during the First Police Action (Agresi Militer Belanda I) after WW II. They want financial compensation, explanations and recognition for their suffering, as announced by their lawyer Mr. Gerrit Jan Pulles.
According to Pulles it is for the first time Indonesian victims of the fighting of 1945-1949 hold the Dutch State responsible. Mr. Pulles acts on behalf of ten villagers from Rawagede, West Java. They survived the bloody attack of the Dutch Army on 9 December 1947. According to the Dutch Honorary Debts Foundation, 431 (almost all the male) villagers were slaughtered. According to the Dutch Indulgence Note from 1969 150 people were killed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced they will study the matter.
Well into 2008, 63 years after Indonesian independence, the Dutch, due to their stubbornness, ignorance and patronizing behaviour, are being haunted again by their crimes in the aftermath of Soekarno’s declaration of 17-8-45 and they rightfully should. Only just being liberated themselves from the Germans the Dutch wanted to continue the situation as it was before WWII and re-occupy their former territories now being declared independent and bearing the name Republik Indonesia.
Rawagede is one of the most notorious events in the history of Indonesian struggle for independence against the Dutch. On 9 December 1947 Dutch forces raided the West Javanese village to look for weapons and Indonesian freedom fighter Lukas Kustario who often spent time in Rawagede. They didn’t find any weapons neither did they find Lukas.
Survivors of Rawagede remember (full version of documentary linked in footnotes).
Apparently dissatisfied by their lack of success the Dutch commander directed all males to be separated from the rest in order to execute all of them, despite the fact there were some young males of 11-12 years old among them. Indonesian leaders reported the mass killing to local UN officials. The UN made an inquiry and concluded the killings were “deliberate” and “ruthless” but failed to prosecute and to have the Dutch punished and sentenced for these obvious crimes against humanity and this is still the situation today!
Last month Pulles (of mixed Indo-Dutch blood like yours truly) visited Rawagede together with people from the “Yayasan Komite Utang Kehormatan Belanda (KUKB)”, including its chairman Jeffry Pondaag, to collect witness accounts and endorsements from survivors in order to hold the Dutch State responsible.
A protest outside Dutch embassy in Jakarta.
While financial compensation is sought after it must be noted that most survivors only want the Dutch State to take moral responsibility and offer official apologies to the Indonesian people. Furthermore they do not seek punishments for the people directly involved in the killings. One survivor just wants the Dutch not to forget what has happened.
At the same time more and more Dutch veterans, haunted by the crimes and horror they experienced, are supportive of the Rawagede survivors’ claim. It is very disappointing to see that of all the Dutch political parties only the left-wing Socialist Party support the claim while the conservative-liberal VVD on behalf of MP spokesman Hans van Baalen even denied Dutch crimes against humanity in Indonesia! 63 years of ignorance and subtle racism have been persistent obviously, a disease many Western nations still suffer from.
It is because of this the KUKB has been founded by Netherlands-based Indonesian Jeffy Pondaag in 2005. They demand the Dutch government:
- to recognize 17 August 1945 as the day Indonesia became independent.
- to offer apologies to the Indonesian people for its colonialism, slavery, gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.
The foundation is a non-subsidized independent foundation with branches in the Netherlands and Indonesia and would be happy to accept any donations. They look after the interests of civilian victims who suffered from violence and war crimes committed by Dutch military. Their website have more information on the Rawagede story and on the infamous Raymond Westerling who murdered thousands of innocent people in South Sulawesi.
Back in 2005 Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, obviously speaking on behalf of the Indonesian people, made it clear Indonesia is not seeking apologies or compensation from the Dutch. This reaction came after then Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot (who is Jakarta-born) expressed regrets and morally accepted the de-facto independence of Indonesia on 17-8-45 while he was representing the Dutch government during the festivities of Independence Day on 17-8-2005. Bot’s remarks were widely criticized in the Dutch media for being insufficient and way too short of a full apology and recognition of 17-8-45.
Of course it is irrelevant if Indonesia is demanding apologies or compensation or not. It should come from the Dutch themselves but their stubbornness and ignorance are still hindering them anno 2008. The Netherlands have constantly refused to express a full apology and recognition but were always quick to raise their finger and lecture its former colony on alleged human rights violations during the Soeharto reign.
I’m fully supportive of the Rawagede villagers and any future similar cases, seeking for Dutch responsibility, recognition and financial compensation. Evidence is clear, witnesses and next of kin are still alive, we’re dealing with war crimes, gross violation of human rights and crimes against humanity and here lies an opportunity for the Dutch to finally deal with its own past by recognizing and helping those poor villagers.
Sources and links:
News article from Dutch daily “Parool” (Dutch) : Indonesiërs klagen Nederlandse staat aan
Website of KUKB (Dutch and Indonesian): Yayasan Komite Utang Kehormatan Belanda
1948 (English) Word document approx. 7.8 MB: Report of the Rawahgedeh observation team
Broadcast of Dutch news show Netwerk with topic on this story: Netwerk 8 September 2008 (witness accounts from survivors (Dutch-Indonesian-Sundanese). Streaming media, requires broadband internet access.
827 Comments on “Dutch War Crimes”
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Arie Brand says:
“It seems you did not see the sarcasm in my posting.”
I would have to be in a state of advanced dementia, which I can assure you I am not, not to see it.
My question is a genuine one. How seriously was the claim taken even then? Was the war so overlooked that ” foreign observers” fell for it? I don’t know.
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I have never seriously pursued that question but one approach could be to look at the attitude of the British pro-Boers. The almost simultaneous Boer War against which they protested might have sharpened their feelings on imperialism anywhere. On the other hand, since only brown folk were involved, their sympathy might not have reached that far. The Dutch pro-Boers were of course not anti-imperialists – they were only pro Dutch.
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Odinius says:
ed said:
But The Roosevelts as well as America itself (in its role of new nation, not in its role of a ‘colony’) do not practice what they preach.
You show me a country, I’ll show you the base hypocrisy of its rhetoric matched with its history. The Netherlands’ history offers another example. In fact, one of the sources of Indonesian nationalism came from its elite reading Dutch writings on the base injustice of Spanish occupation. So they thought: “if it was so wrong for the Spanish to occupy and oppress the Netherlands, why is it okay for the Dutch to occupy and oppress us?”
Can probably make the same argument for those groups within Indonesia that have sought to leave. This is the essential problem with the idea of self-determination: no one actually believes in universal self-determination, which is an untenable proposition anyways. But exhortations to the right of self-determination typically co-exist with rationalizations and apologies for a lack of self-determination elsewhere.
…as for the US and Indonesia, I was pretty sure it was Truman, not Roosevelt, that backed the nascent Republic over the Netherlands. Roosevelt was dead by August 17, 1945, after all.
Oigal said:
Ouch,…. At the risk of giving the game away (I was once accused of being a Malaysian here amongst other things). Colonial Heritage indeed, I am the mongel offspring of a convict therefore no great love of Brits as such (genetically bred to dislike??). I spend my entire childhood getting a flogging from the pommy immigrants who flooded our little piece of paradise (ok it was mostly my fault, even then I count not keep my mouth shut).
Actually Ody, I did get it just having some fun as well
Yes it was fun while it lasted!
…and for the record, I developed a recurrent Anglophobic streak when I lived on that damp, grey island, so any British Empire boosterism on my part should be taken with the biggest grain of garam laut on Madura… 😉
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ed says:
@Odimius
True, Roosevelt died in 1945 before the war was even over, but he was the one who said the things I refererd to ( I actually did check). Even during the war he was already expressing his idea’s about colonies in general and Indonesia in particular.However, Truman might have been supportive of Indonesia as a republic as well, probably on the same grounds as I described for Roosevelt: fear that an Indonesia figthing against a colonizing power would easily fall in th ehands of communist support
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Not quite so simple on Truman, ed. The ‘threat of communism’ was not really that big in Indonesia at that time, given the absolute hiding the Republic gave to Tan Malaka in 1947. It was comparably much higher in many countries in which the US supported the colonial regimes, such as French Indochina.
So why the difference? First off, Roosevelt had given explicit orders to support ‘our gallant allies,’ the French. He gave no such orders concerning the Dutch and the Netherlands Indies. The Netherlands, furthermore, was receiving a buttload of Marshall Plan funds. So was France, but again, France was perceived as one of the Allies, and an important country to keep happy. The Netherlands was not. Hence the double standard.
But, of course, as pertains to Indonesia, it was a much more benign double standard than the Netherlands’, which consisted of great support for its own independence and none whatsoever for Indonesia’s. In Vietnam, American and French double standards were roughly equivalent. Looking at the treatment of the Hmong and others by the post unification Vietnamese government, it looks like they can join the international double standard club too!
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@odinius
I am not denying those things, but the absence of any realistic threath for communist influence has never stopped the americans to see such a threath.If you google on Roosevelt and “Queen Wilhelmina”, you’ll find ample reference that during the war already Roosevelt mad clear that keeping Indonesia as a colony was not an option, Although he was willing to consider Only Java to be independent.
As said the queen was not against it and various other high placed dutch officials were not against it and therefore it is mindboggling that in fact it resulted in war.
With regard to various remarks that were made about Surinams independence, there it were the Dutch that were pushing and Surinam to be stalling, untill there was the hidden threath that if no compromise was found we’d send them their independence by mail. Quite different therefore 😉
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I have just been reading part of Richard McMillan’s book “The British Occupation of Indonesia 1945 – 1946” and its contents would justify rebaptising this thread into “Dutch, British, Indonesian war crimes ” or just “War crimes”.
A typical incident was the burning down of Bekasi on the orders of General Christison.
This was in revenge for the following incident: On the 23rd of November 1945 a Dakota plane carrying 20 troops and crew crashed near Bekasi. A reconnaissance aircraft reported that both crew and passengers were safe. But when British troops reached the scene next day they found nobody there except for the horribly mutilated body of an Indian soldier one of whose hands had been cut off, a head of some other soldier and another hand.
In the following days searches were undertaken in kampongs nearby and many houses were set on fire.
On the 29th of November a column of troops and tanks went out to Bekasi were they got armed resistance from the “Black Buffaloes” (“Banteng hitam”?), the group which had killed the crew and passengers of the Dakota. These were all killed. Bekasi was deserted but in the local jail they found a Dutch boy, twenty Chinese and Indonesians and three Ambonese women. These were set free. One of the Ambonese women confirmed that the crew and passengers of the Dakota had all been killed a few days earlier. The bodies were ultimately discovered buried near the river. On the order of General Christison Bekasi was then set on fire, except for the Chinese quarter, and 600 houses were burnt down.
This was a war crime following an Indonesian war crime, the mutilating and shooting of prisoners (these were obviously not killed in action).
The British also killed prisoners. McMillan reports:”Although the British occupation of Indonesia had assumed the character of a war, it is clear that captured Indonesians were not treated as prisoners of war, as the British had treated the Japanese in Burma. Indonesians captured in the act of offering armed resistance were shot as a matter of routine.” (p.71)
Since armed Indonesian resistance then probably mainly came from irregular troops the British justification was probably that these were “franc tireurs”.
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Frank says:
Everyone bring something good to the discussion, however it’s time to move on we change what happen 300+ or 60years ago . But the best argument is in the last 60 years the indonesians has had horrible leadership. Indonesia has more resources then Isreal and they both become independent around the same time what a difference. Although the current president is the best they had more needs to be done.
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Cukurungan says:
Indonesia has more resources then Isreal and they both become independent around the same time what a difference. Although the current president is the best they had more needs to be done.
The difference is Indonesia Leadership has to feed 200 million mouths plus providing subsidy to US Welfare while Israel Leadership just only feeding less than 20 million mouths with heavy subsidy from US Tax payer
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Oigal says:
Laugh… you were doing fine with solid (although debatable points) until
plus providing subsidy to US Welfare
One must admit, you are the Elliot Goblet of IM… and be relied upon to always reduce any thinking person to tears of laughter. Thanks
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Elliot Goblet
I had some vague memory of that name but I had to search on it to remember…talk about obscure references…anyway Cuk this is who is referred to:
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Aw come on Patung fair go.. what about some points for effort.. 🙂 Anyone can just toss out insults..
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The difference is Indonesia Leadership has to feed 200 million mouths plus providing subsdy to US Welfare while Israel Leadership just only feeding less than 20 million mouths with heavy subsidy from US Tax payer
While its a true statement Indomesia has 250 million to feed.i was not thinking about that as much as the corruption and cruelty. Sueharto killied millions ( although I think that he had US backed money – that can be another discussion ). then Abdurrahman Wahid very corrupt and then Megawati Sukarnoputri less corrupt. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono i think he is on the right track . But the infrastracture is weak there there are no checks and balances. I am not in anyway saying USA is utopia we have just as many crooks in office.
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The difference is Indonesia Leadership has to feed 200 million
However with the exception of the first and last president; leadership in Indonesia is not interested in feeding or working for the people. Also, Indonesia is in a perfect geographic location for crops,as the Dutch didn’t want to leave the non ending source of income. Indonesia cultivates enough crops to feed the people and can maintain its status as a top country in exporting.
ps I am in no way disrespecting the country I just like to see more done for the people that live there . when i was there I found the people so wonderful very friendly. They deserve much more from their country
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Andy says:
cuky-
The difference is Indonesia Leadership has to feed 200 million mouths plus providing subsidy to US Welfare while Israel Leadership just only feeding less than 20 million mouths with heavy subsidy from US Tax payer.
This is without a doubt the silliest and most uneducated comment ever posted on IM. It is more like the other way round. America has 300 million mouths to feed and provides welfare to morons like you in the form of foreign aid. My country (Australia) handed over a billion just last year and continues to aid and abet an ungrateful neighbour and feed their corruption also. Without money from the west I can’t imagine how bad off the indos would be. Also a quick check to see who does provide aid shows muslim countries contributing nothing even when disasters like the tsunami occured. Just shows indos bite the hand that feeds them and caresses the one that gives them nothing.
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Andy Says:
Without money from the west I can’t imagine how bad off the indos would be. Also a quick check to see who does provide aid shows muslim countries contributing nothing even when disasters like the tsunami occured. Just shows indos bite the hand that feeds them and carresses the one that gives them nothing.
Good point ! I wonder what did the richest country in the world ( Saudi Arabia) do for Indonesia, during the tsunamis I know US had other western countries were there within days with aid. n
Just because of all the corruption I am against giving money to the country it would never get to the people, but aid , food I think is the only way we should help the Indonesians.
AS for providing subsidy to US Welfare please explain. I don’t think Indonesia is in any shape to give Financial Aid to US .
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Saudi Arabia is trying to help indonesian people to keep them from falling into the depth of the pit. Their wahhabism is the best guide on earth (to avoid getting oneself fall victim to satan / kafir / gays / chinese / japanese / caucasians / feminists / ukulele player / hawaiians / speedy gonzales / you name it except arabs). Did that answer your question Frank?
Btw, I just googled with keyword “Saudi Arabia Most hated country” (without the quotes) and I stumbled upon: http://mosthated.ueuo.com/index.htm
Please vote for Saudi Arabia. Thank you.
Malaysia will do as well. Thank you.
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I did vote for Saudi arabia but it wasn’t easy always hated the French. But you have to give the yes vote to the country that stones 13 year old girls.
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Joey says:
Must admit I read this discussion in a state of shock. In any country around the world, it is never a winning solution to think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Among white people, there are good ones and bad ones, just like among black people, Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, etc.
As a semi-white man with a Javanese father and a Javanese wife, I have to admit that the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spanish, French and British did things that did not deserve a medal. But no people on this planet are holier than the Pope. In Indonesia, Churches are still being burnt regularly. There is still no place for non-Muslims.
And those who celebrate Indonesia’s independence should also remember that their fathers might have fought for the Japanese in WW2. And when the Japanese empire fell, those same people raped, tortured and killed many Dutch women & children who just came out of the Japanese camps.
But this is all in the past and no matter what people here may say, the radicals are usually uneducated and the majority of Javanese are extremely friendly to Dutch people, thankfully. Upon many of our visits to Java, we met with older Javanese people who still speak Dutch and were happy to have a conversation with us. I also think that most Javanese are extremely hospitable and will even give you their last food, just to show you that you are a welcome guest. Most Javanese don’t care what my religion is or that I am Dutch, they see me as a guest and I always tip friendly people. In fact, our Muslim driver in Bandung has had many, many customers through us, because he has been so nice to us. That’s what life is about, loving your neighbours, even when they are different or have different beliefs.
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Peter says:
If you are going to charge a person for war crimes be prepared to face the fact that war is war and if you make it a crime, well you might aswell go and arest every solidier that ever fought and killed in a war, aswell as the idiotic prime ministers, presidents and dictators that argued and bought themselves into war.
This is what you have to do if you’re going to charge one person for war crimes. if you dont, then you have no right to charge them, fairly that is.
Some want to fight and some are forced to fight.
I will use WWII as an example. An american troop volunteers to fight the germans. Lets say he joins for the fighting and killing (trust me it happens), and i germany a 20 year old college student is recruited forcefully against his will. they both go to war and both kill 15 enemy troops. later when the american volunteer sits in his pensioned house with two dogs and his wife. The german recruit is jobless because he never got his diploma and whatever. soon the recruit will be persecuted by whomever and distant relative of a soldier he fought against. he spends the rest of his life in prison.
I still hate the nazis to their guts the same situation can happen visa-versa.
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If you are going to charge a person for war crimes be prepared to face the fact that war is war and if you make it a crime, well you might aswell go and arest every solidier that ever fought and killed in a war, aswell as the idiotic prime ministers, presidents and dictators that argued and bought themselves into war.
Difficult to find a stupider statement on the net today. So any leader that went to war against the Nazi’s or Japanese in World War Two should have been tried for war crimes???
The Nazi’s in charge of the death camps should not have stood trial??
Or the animals that conducted the below should have been tried for War Crimes?
“The Bangka Island (Indonesia) massacre took place on 16 February 1942, when Japanese soldiers machine gunned 22 Australian military nurses. There was only one survivor.
On 12 February 1942, the merchant ship Vyner Brooke left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. The ship contained many injured service personnel and 64 Australian nurses of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital. The ship was shelled and sunk by the Japanese. Two nurses were killed in the bombing, nine were last seen drifting away from the ship on a raft and were never heard from again, and the rest reached shore at Bangka Island, in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).
These nurses joined up with a group of men and injured personnel from the ship. Once it was discovered that the Island was held by the Japanese, an officer went to surrender the group to the authorities in Muntok. A small group of women and children headed off after him. The Australian nurses stayed to care for the wounded. They set up a shelter with a large Red Cross sign on it.
Shortly afterwards, ten Japanese soldiers led by an officer appeared. They ordered all the wounded capable of walking to travel around a headland, where they were shot and bayonetted. The soldiers returned and ordered the remaining twenty two nurses to walk into the surf. A machine gun was set up on the beach and when the women were waist deep, they were machine-gunned. All but Sister Lt Vivian Bullwinkel were killed.
Shot in the diaphragm, Bullwinkel was unconscious when she washed up on the beach and was left for dead. She evaded capture for ten days, but was eventually caught and imprisoned. She survived the war and gave evidence of the massacre at a war crimes trial in Tokyo in 1947”
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Wow, I didn’t know that the japanese were evil (too). Hmm….
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Lho, Diego, look into the “Rape of Nanking“, among other things, but it’s a good start…
The Japanese are nice and cuddly and friendly today because they were soundly utterly beaten first, then colonised, and remade by your friendly neighbourhood American democrats.
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You might also wish to check out the History of Indonesia’s very own death railway in Sumatera. More Indonesians died there than the more infamous Thai version
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Frank says:
RE:
If you are going to charge a person for war crimes be prepared to face the fact that war is war and if you make it a crime, well you might aswell go and arest every solidier that ever fought and killed in a war, aswell as the idiotic prime ministers, presidents and dictators that argued and bought themselves into war.Yup that is one stupid comment. War crimes are those that went beyond what is expected from a solder. No solder was tried for shooting the enemy. Only when they committed crimes against humanity on a large scale, or killing defenseless civilians.
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dragonwall says:
Frank ..ly speaking
Only when they committed crimes against humanity on a large scale, or killing defenseless civilians
like what it’s said.
But did the Dutch killed innocent people? Yes they did. So are that know as war crimes? Kind of a stupid to speculate.
Similarly in Indonesia soldiers acting on instruction killed innocent people but shouldn’t those who order them to do so be drag to the court and be charge for war crimes?
Have you ever experienced being a victim of that?
Well a mother is always a woman. Only people with short sightedness would speculate a mother could be a man.
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Lairedion says:
Well a mother is always a woman. Only people with short sightedness would speculate a mother could be a man.
Wow, where do you gain such wisdom?
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How did the discussion about pregnant man suddenly come up?
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diego,
With DW involved in a discussion anything can happen. Out of the blue he comes up with this thoughtful statement.
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@Arie
It seems you did not see the sarcasm in my posting.
As far as yr question is concerned: various old time ‘deals’ in which colonial powers bought and sold land that were not theirs to buy or sell in the first place have been declared valid by a.o. USA law and international law. Although it was recognized that the deals where anything but fair, it was ruled that these were common and lawful in those specific days and therefore binding.