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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Hoi says:
Purba,
Take a look around you and see that the Dutch essentially build Indonesia. Without the Dutch there would not have been the ethical policy, a feat which no one mentioned quite surprisingly. The ethical policy paved the way to Indonesian nationalism all the leaders of Indonesia were educated in Dutch educational institutions, Europeesche Lagere School van Nederlands-Indië, hogereburgerschool ,and he became an engineer in 1925 where he graduated from Technische Hoogeschool te Bandung.The Dutch have done horrible things but everybody has. This whole affair, It stinks on all sides but don’t let blind nationalism turn into a racist dislike for a populace. With hindsight we could say that without the Dutch there would not have been Indonesia.
The politionele acties yeah they were wrong and ridiculous, the Dutch should have handled it like Ze Brits by proposing independence but then under the british commonwealth. The Dutch actually tried this but then the republic were not really keen on doing this. On one hand you had the intellectual Sutan Sjahrir who was the only politician who had a solution and made sense, and on the other hand Soekarno who did not want negotiate or whatsoever.
Although I must say that the historiography on the politionele acties in the Netherlands is quite an embitterment
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ET says:
Sukarno wanted a unitary Indonesia with a centralized government and himself at the top of the pecking order. Any proposal by the Dutch to make Indonesia a federalized state was considered an attempt at divide et impera. The Indonesian people themselves were left out of any real democratic decision making process. just like the Papuans 20 years later. Their only choice was to follow the leader and those who didn’t like the South-Moluccans paid a heavy price.
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Arie Brand says:
Adriaan van Dis, a Dutch author, recently travelled through Indonesia to make a television documentary. I understand that he had never been there before. However, his father was a Eurasian and his mother was, before giving birth to him, originally married to an officer of the colonial army (another Eurasian) who was beheaded by the Japanese.
So, plenty of family memories to find the background of.
The first instalment was filmed on board of a Pelni-ship with which he travelled to Sulawesi (the ship went on to Papua but he was not allowed to go there).
Discourse is mainly in English and Indonesian – the subtitles are in Dutch.
For those who are interested:
http://www.hollanddoc.nl/kijk-luister/documentaire/d/van-dis-in-indonesie.html
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Yaser Antone says:
Please any one tell me about six patriotic days in Dutch history ( 10 – 16 May 1940 ). in case you forgot, its about the battle of Nederlands. After a six day fight, a proud national army ceased to exist. It was an unbelieve bravery shown by Dutch soldiers, they were able to withstand the German assault for SIX DAYS, what a great military achievement which the old Dutch must recount the story with the fullest pride.
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If evidence is needed for the hypothesis I came up with in my last post on the other thread : here is at least some of it. Give us more Yaser.
Incidentally we have now moved from Dutch war crimes to war crimes against the Dutch (see Wikipedia on the Battle of the Netherlands). I can’t say I regret the shift.
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Hey Yasar, then perhaps you could expand on the proud national army who thought they could stroll into a country a fraction of her size with passive and not so passive assistance of every western nation and who soundly got her arse whipped for two weeks by peasant farmers until aircraft supplied by the british turn the tide. Of course they took ground but never held ground for the next 25 years. We are of course talking of East Timor but if that bores you lets talk Malaysia :-). Indonesia has achieved much but I would suggest trying to denigrate other nations of the performance of their forces is very shaky ground to make a stand on.
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Nice one oigal;-)
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BangaIndonesia says:
90% of the stupid dutch people will never know this violating, unhuman part of history, as yes, what i already read here, if they had to pay all the dept , dutch would be pourest. But there is another part, some people of indonesia are still loyal to those bastards, i would never do that.. ex-KNIL militants and indo’s …..
Banga Indonesia, ANTI baratistme!! nationalistme but absolutely NOT extreem religionisme
one more note: ANTI-Baratisme means AGAINST Colonialisme by the WEST(australia – US and just call the names of the countries) and by the way, KARMA comes back…. 5 year war is nothing comparing 350 year treat people unhuman and stealing including WAR…..
i dont care about the WWII day for the dutchies, meanwhile they where the same kind like the nazi’s , killing people, torchering(1945-1950), the spirits of the innocent people are still searching their rest and peace.
and after 60 years, some old men comes to say ” we are so sorry” …..
TO HOI:
“Without the Dutch there would not have been the ethical policy, a feat which no one mentioned quite surprisingly. ”
without indonesia there was no wealthy holland, look at Shell one of the first oil platforms build in indonesia. DUH!!! there is no book , or any lessons in holland, about the things they did do wrong bad wurse, nothing, only talking about the golden ages of VOC.
Typical dutch people.
TO HOI:
” With hindsight we could say that without the Dutch there would not have been Indonesia.”
where did you read that???
???? The Japanese took over, while the Dutchies tried to take over Indonesia again.. then the UN came , so the dutch had to get the hell out of my country
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Military matters are quite obscure to me.
Just this morning I heard on the news that the Dutch want to sell one hundred of their tanks (I don’t know whether they have any left after that). For the money they want to buy unmanned drones. Where the hell are they going to use those?
They have found a customer for those tanks. Indonesia. It wants to buy them for two hundred million Euro and the Dutch Ministry of Defence seems to be happy with the offer. Now what is Indonesia going to do with those tanks? That is also the question in Dutch parliament where there seems to be no inclination right now to approve of the deal. Members have referred to West Papua, Aceh and East Timor.
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Ya, I read Indonesia was also looking at purchasing Leopard Tanks..WTF? To use where? Doing What? More ships makes sense, more planes makes sense..Tanks..bizarre!
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Oigel
You seem to forget that we have land borders with Malaysia and
Papua new guinea -
In the morning of the 14th May 1940 Hitler issued his “Weisung” no. 11. It read (in translation):
The resistance capability of the Dutch army has proved to be stronger than expected. Political as well as military reasons demand that this resistance is broken as soon as possible. It is the task of the army to capture the Fortress Holland by committing enough forces from the south, combined with an attack on the east front. In addition to that the air force must, while weakening the forces that up till now have supported the 6th Army, facilitate the rapid fall of the Fortress Holland.
The quickest means to break the resistance as soon as possible was to bomb the heart out of Rotterdam. This took place at about 7 kms. away from us. I was four at the time and the whole affair must have frightened a year’s growth out of me.
The Germans threatened that, if the Dutch army did not cease its resistance, other cities would follow suit. The most likely target would have been Utrecht. The Dutch army saw no way to stop the bombers and capitulated. It could have been that if it hadn’t the Germans would have decided to finish the job in Rotterdam and its surroundings first in which case I might not have been here to write this letter.
A bit much to satisfy Yasser.
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berlian biru says:
The rapid Dutch capitulation to the Germans and the Japanese will certainly not be regarded as the finest hour of a once mighty empire.
They had got soft and fat over the centuries sucking the marrow out of the bones of their empire’s subject peoples, without being prepared to actually fight and die for that empire when the crunch came.
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More bs from bb.
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What’s bs about it Arie?
You yourself point out that the Dutch army were holding the Germans but packed it in after an hour’s bombing of one town. Not exactly the Blitz spirit was it? Good thing the citizens of London, Leningrad and Stalingrad were made of sterner stuff than the burghers of Rotterdam.
Look at the Poles, they held out longer than the Dutch, they were alone and fighting two armies. Their capital city was heavily bombed. The Poles fought on even after being defeated in the field, sending hundreds of thousands of men overseas to fight in lands far from their homeland. Even then in Warsaw in 1944 they rose again and fought longer than harder than the Dutch had done and once again saw their capital razed to the ground.
Magnificent spirit the Poles had, but then they hadn’t been softened by the tropical breezes had they?
The Yugoslavs also saw Belgrade being bombed, they fought on savagely for the next four years tying down entire German divisions and eventually liberating themselves. They liberated themselves around the time Ann Frank died in Auschwitz having been sold for a few guilders by some Dutchman.
Even in the Far East the British fought longer, harder and lost more men for tiny Singapore than the Dutch did for their entire Asian empire.
Soft and fat, Arie. Soft and fat.
(At this point cue timdog and Oigal to rush to Arie’s aid to show that in fact the Dutch were the greatest fighters of WWII and anyway what about the shitehole of Indonesia today, eh?)
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S
Soft and fat, Arie. Soft and fat.
Yes and the trouble was that, being so fat, they couldn’t run away fast enough either.
Wouldn’t have helped them very much though – with that conspicuous attire.
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stevo says:
Just this morning I heard on the news that the Dutch want to sell one hundred of their tanks (I don’t know whether they have any left after that). For the money they want to buy unmanned drones. Where the hell are they going to use those?
The Dutch want Drones (and the Indonesians want Tanks) for the usual reasons. They employ them against their own citizens and those of other countries to exert authority.
The Dutch are already using drones against their own citizens; for example spying on marijuana growers (watch out Timdog!) and have done for some time. Tomorrow the Dutch navy is sending the HNLMS Evertsen to patrol waters around Somalia. They have an unmanned Drone with them.
It is hardly surprising that Indonesia would want to maintain its military capabilities, in the same way every other country does. I doubt they intend to invade their former colonizers ( Would they need a hundred tanks for that job?)
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Thanks Yasar, and you are going to deploy Leopard tanks in Papua to patrol the land border. Yup, that will work. In fact from a military and stategic stand point is is difficult to imagine a more useless piece of military hardware for the Indonesian situation. The Malaysian border…hmmm…didn’t work out so well time, can’t see how half dozen 40 tonne tanks stuck turret deep in the mud will make a difference.
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The Yugoslavs also saw Belgrade being bombed, they fought on savagely for the next four years tying down entire German divisions and eventually liberating themselves.
BB, I would be very careful drawing upon that region as an example of resistance to facisim. They were certainly very enthusiastic about helping out with the “Jewish problem” and rather allot else.
Recently their was another failure of regligious tolerance. If your point is that, they love a scrap, then point taken.
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Actually no BB, but if you wish I can give you a history lesson on the British in South East Asia along particularly after the sinking of HMAS Repulse and POW. Shall we start with the abject failures of leadership, abandonment of her soldiers and citizens/colonies.
On the plus it was the beginning of the end of the British myth of reliability, trust and decency towards her colonies and an awakening of what she really represented. Just be reading about the fine and noble behaviours of the Brits in Malaysia, interesting read.
Not sure how you arriived at the fact I am some great supporter of the Dutch as such but fun to watch you get there.
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Serbian Nazi fascists worked closely with German Nazi officials in making Belgrade the first “Judenfrei” city of Europe. Serbian leader Milan Nedic made an official visit to Adolf Hitler on 19 September 1943, advancing the idea that Serbia is no place for Jews and thanking ‘Führer’ for his decision to exterminate our people in Europe.
Throughout the War, the Serbian Chetnik movement remained almost completely inactive against the occupation forces, and increasingly collaborated with the Axis, losing its international recognition as the Yugoslav resistance force.
(watch out Timdog!) Ooops I think I mean Madhatter.
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Not sure how you arriived at the fact I am some great supporter of the Dutch
No you just hate Indonesia, I know, we all know, trust me you’ve made it clear often enough. You hate Indonesia so much you can’t bring yourself to leave it.
…her arse whipped for two weeks by peasant farmers until aircraft supplied by the british turn the tide.
You know when I first read that I thought it referred to the RAF strafing unarmed men, women and children in Surabaya in November 1945 as they supported British and Australian ground troops massacring thousands of peasants armed with little more than bamboo sticks and all on behalf of the Dutchman.
Isn’t it funny what hypocritical westerners choose to get all sanctimonious about when it comes to Indonesia, and what they choose to forget?
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No you just hate Indonesia”, I know, we all know, trust me you’ve made it clear often enough. You hate Indonesia so much you can’t bring yourself to leave it
What abject nonsense you do talk. Although the irony is your Lord Jim routine racing out to protect your natives from these evil white folk is almost side splitting as a parody . Here’s a tip, most commentators here both national and otherwise are more than capable of debating their own position without the patronising Lord Jim routine from yourself (as amusing as it is). I am pretty sure even Yasar the sock ironer doesn’t really need nor wants Colonel Tishtosh racing out to defend him.
You know when I first read that I thought it referred to the RAF strafing unarmed men, women and children in Surabaya in November 1945
The perhaps you should read a little more carefully and perhaps do a little more research before we arrive at more of the BB self evident facts. Once again I am happy to provide you with a little more history is you are prepared to relax and lower “I am just so jolly offended on behalf of my natives routine”
As the man said..Get a Grip and lower the hyperbole.
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agan says:
No you just hate Indonesia, I know, we all know, trust me you’ve made it clear often enough. You hate Indonesia so much you can’t bring yourself to leave it.
He is probably experiencing the Humpybong Syndrome
not that uncommon for people who believe they are the victim of an abusive relationship
hates his pembantu, neck of the woods masjid’s loudspeaker, host country or whatnot
and yet form strong bond and emotional ties at the same time.No worry most of us at some point in our lives go thru this also and its’ all good.
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to protect your natives from these evil white folk
The Indonesian people don’t need me to defend them from red faced, apoplectic western losers, they’ve proved themselves more than capable of doing that in the past.
But come on, do tell us again how a blowhard aussie, who very strangely and quite inexplicably hates this country, its history, its culture and its administration but who doesn’t do the logical thing and fuck off back to where he came from, would run this country so much better than the people who actually live here and love the place.
You’ve only droned on about it five hundred and seventy thousand or so times already.
Oigal do your blood pressure a favour mate, go home, you’re killing yourself with so much bitterness and bile bottled up inside you. There must be a suburb of Wagga Wagga that would be more appreciative of your vast and unequalled knowledge of the world than the bloody ungrateful Indons, eh?
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Riki Purnomoz says:
Humpybonger has been trying to savor city life for years, Its a pity he aren’t able to ajust himself to the civilized society. He curses everything around. If you are a dung smellist or a spuddy then living in Jakarta is a torture.
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Now now BB, I know you have taken quite a pasting over the past couple days but honestly it’s self inflicted but do try and be civil or at least humourous (throw in a BB self evident fact to two they are always good for a giggle). We have discussed the Lord Jim thing, you really should drop it, it is patronizing and to say the least self absorbed. Actually no I don’t have a vast and unequaled knowledge but I can see how it might appear that way in conversation with yourself everything is relative I guess.
Agan , sorry couldn’t hear you, it’s those loud speakers.
Riki Tiki, sorry don’t live anywhere Jakarta but I do appreciate your attempts at humour.
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sorry couldn’t hear you
Bloody fair dinkum mate, too much wanking does lead to hard of hearing!
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as they supported British and Australian ground troops massacring thousands of peasants armed with little more than bamboo sticks and all on behalf of the Dutchman.
I sometimes suspect that BB gets, as far as Indonesia is concerned, history lessons from his (or others) school going children.
Rachmat Sudibjo writes on his website “One Upon a Time in Nusantara” , a propos of Mayor General Hawthorn’s ultimatum to the Surabayan populace to surrender its weapons:
Certainly, Hawthorn must have been dreaming. He was unaware about the immensity of the weapons quantity he had asked Surabaya people to surrender. A total of 37,000 arms of various types including rifles, heavy machine guns, mortars, coastal batteries, trucks,18 anti-aircraft artillery, 23 light tanks, 34 Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel, 1 mine sweeper, 2 submarine hunters and 2 tugboats were in the hand of Surabaya military, police, and volunteers, not mention the clubs, swords, daggers, and bamboo spears held in the mob’s hands.
These weapons supposedly came from the Japanese. I don’t know to what extent this claim is true but it certainly sounds a lot more plausible than BB’s bamboo spears. Or does he believe that the 600 or so allied service men who were killed in that battle had all been dispatched by bamboo spears? For what it is worth Wikipedia has under the entry “Battle of Surabaya”
a picture of a burnt out Indonesian tank. It also mentions that the biggest loss to the nationalist cause there was the amount of weaponry that fell into British hands. What were the Brits going to do with all those bamboo spears?
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Yasar ..just because you have been terminated as incapable of washing and ironing socks does not mean you can come back howling at the moon.