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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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.
A poor deflection from the original post but in order to provide a little more history happy to play along.
I guess if you want to be historically accurate about the battle of Surabaya you should mention at that time the Indian and Australian troops were under British command. One should also mention that India and Australia were among the first of the first nations to recognize Indonesian Independence as early as September 1945.
Neighbouring Australia and newly independent India were particularly active in supporting the Republic’s cause in the UN, as was the Soviet Union and, most significantly, the United States. Dutch ships continued to be boycotted from loading and unloading by Australian waterside workers, a blockade that began in September 1945.
It is a recorded fact (as opposed to a self evident one) that many Australia troops in Balikpapan deliberately provided weapons and support to Indonesian Republicans in defiance of orders to provide a transitional handover to Dutch administrators, much to the disgust of the Dutch at the time.
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Arie Brand says:
I quoted Rachmat Sudibjo on Indonesian weaponry during the Battle for Surabaya but he has just written a post (on Indonesian infiltrations in West Papua before the Bunker Agreement) which makes me doubt his accuracy as a historian. I have commented on it and will wait and see whether it survives moderation.
I don’t know anything about his background. The only Rachmat Sudibjo (sometimes spelled Sudibyo) I could find is a Dr.Ir. Rachmat Sudibjo who teaches at Universitas Trisakti and seems to be a special adviser of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.
For his story about the Battle of Surabaya Sudibjo only refers to Indonesian sources and (Ambassador) Jones’ book “Indonesia – the possible dream”. I have found Jones to be quite inaccurate in other contexts.
Whatever the case may be I am quite sure that BB’s “bamboo spears” is a laughable underestimation of what the “pahlawan” really threw at the Brits.
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Riki Purnomoz says:
Meneer Arie Brand,
I am sure you are one of Westerling admirer. The whole world know that The Dutch are the peasants killers. The shameless cowards who run away to Britain with packed lingeries when the first german bomb fell into their tulip garden. Now tell me something to justify what westerling did in Sulawesi ( Killing more than 40.000 innocent peasants, mostly women and children). -
Meneer Arie Brand,
I am sure you are one of Westerling admirer.Meneer Riki Purnomoz,
Could you please tell me why you are so sure that I am a Westerling admirer?
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Opa Arie,
Reread your postings on this thread, then you will find that wEsterling is your hero. I am quite curious how is the size of wEsterlings poster in your bed room. -
Riki, as a matter of genuine interest, can you please tell me at what level and where you have been taught Indonesian history?
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There is no need for you to be a great historian to know the fact that the entire of your grandfather family was killed by the colonial thugs. Then there is an old folk trying to romanticize everything about what his ancestor did to helpless peasants. Then there is a foreigner asking you to show him your diploma to prove that you know something about your own country history.
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Well Riki, may I infer from that that you have not been exposed to any history teaching? I rather hope so because I would hate to think that the primitive myths you come up with are representative for the level of Indonesian education in that area.
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Then, may I infer from that that you are a fake history teacher?.
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Here is some of my more recent teaching, Riki:
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Why didn’t you recommend me to read wikipedia?
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Did you say “colonialist thugs”? You wouldn’t find such words in Wikipedia but did they come to mind when you read about the goings on in that prison in Jayapura.? Oh you haven’t read it? I could have guessed. How could you cling to your myths if you had to read reports about actual happenings. That wouldn’t do, would it now Riki?
We are living here three hours later than at your place so I call it a day.
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Arie Brand,
You write your own version of history, then you read it twice a day. Be happy with it. You want to be recognized as a great historian, I guess only Oigallum Humpybongum spudum kickum does it. -
Sadly Riki, every so often it you come across people on whom education has been a complete waste. In fact, Ari and I differ in our opinions on great many matters. The difference between him and yourself is Ari actually delivers facts in support of his position and whilst it may not change my perception, I often learn something new. With you on the other hand, reading your nonsense leaves one feeling we have wasted precious minutes that will never come back. The sad part is that if you actually had something to offer it would be interesting to see the issue from another factual but different perspective.
Oh and do skip the insult fest, it’s boring and frankly you would be way out of your league.
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In all seriousness, I will be posting another account of the Japanese in Kalimantan soon and the liberation of same. Pretty detailed and graphic, yet once again purely from a foreigners perspective simply because the historical detail from an Indonesia perspective is not readily available. I have seen some pictures of Dayaks swapping Japanese heads for Dutch Gilders but that is about it.
Now it would nice (and surprising) if someone like you Riki Tiki could add some value/ However I am willing to bet short of the “all dutch/foreigners” are bastards we won’t get much.
Of course, as a fair bit of the post will be about sea landings, I am sure our other easily offended one will rail against us picking on the Indonesian seamen or something equally bizarre. However fair warning, it wont get published this time tho/.
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berlian biru says:
Ah yes the “liberation” of Kalimantan, I read about that in the paper the other day.
So troops of the British Empire taking possession of Indonesian territory from the Japanese Empire in order to hand it over to the Dutch Empire was “liberation” was it?
Odd sort of dictionaries some people must use around here.
Getting very thin-skinned about the “insult fest” angle all of a sudden Oigal. I’ll do you a deal I’ll drop the insults and stick to orderly debate if you will, however given that vulgar abuse, and rather lame schoolboy abuse at that, is your fall back when losing an argument I don’t think you’ll be able to stick to that deal somehow.
Let’s see how long you can stick to it.
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Did you completely miss the part about the Dayaks willing assistance in the liberation prior to the Landings? Are you seriously not aware of the nature of Japanese occupation and the treatment of Indonesians? Did you completely miss the part about Australia and India supporting Indonesia Independence as far back as September 1945?
That said Western Nations most notably Australia and the US shamefully blotted their copybook in 1965 and again during the Invasion of East Timor which curiously completely refutes the nonsensical claim that the West has worked to rip chunks from Indonesia. The reality is they have passively and actively assisted Indonesia to gain territory although under the circumstances that is nothing to be proud of.
Honestly, you ability to skip over anything that does not fit your bizarre view of the world is jaw dropping. Never thin skinned BB, people like yourself have little effect on me as they are a dime a dozen in places like Jakarta the world over. Although the Lord Jim routine is a hoot. but if you want to go into a pure insult fest frankly its too easy but boring for others.
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So troops of the British Empire taking possession of Indonesian territory from the Japanese Empire in order to hand it over to the Dutch Empire was “liberation” was it?
Oh by the way, just to help you with your shocking regional history. The reference to Troops of the British Empire bit is at best tenuous. Operation Oboe (1 and 2) was an Australian Operation supported by US Naval and Air Assets. The British as has been pointed out to you before had ceased to have any real relevance to Australian Operations in the region since the fall of Singapore and the sinking of HMAS POW and the Repulse.
Whilst the battle for Kalimantan was the last major land battle of the Pacific, it was ultimately a strategic nonsense. The war had long since turned and the Oil Refineries of Balikpapan were of no use to Japanese with out air or naval superiority. It has been said that Macarthur just wanted just a pure US invasion of Japan and this was a sop to the Australian Government.
Now BB if you actually have something that would indicate the local population were against the Japanese being driven out or that they had the support of the local population particularly in the latter stages of the war, please do provide a link (you will excuse me if I don’t accept a BB self evident fact). As I said before I admit to having a dearth of written Indonesian records from that time but over the past ten years there is a yearly service to commemorate the liberation. These services attract several hundred people both expatriate and Indonesian, including significant numbers of Indonesian WW2 veterans (although numbers are thin now days). I have seen many crying and shaking the hands of the Australian Vets that attend, I have yet to see one even remotely indicating they were against the landings. Still what would they know compared to some.
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Ah yes the “liberation” of Kalimantan, I read about that in the paper the other day.
So you have another source besides your kids’ history lessons.What paper BB?
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That said Western Nations most notably Australia and the US shamefully blotted their copybook in 1965 and again during the Invasion of East Timor which curiously completely refutes the nonsensical claim that the West has worked to rip chunks from Indonesia. The reality is they have passively and actively assisted Indonesia to gain territory although under the circumstances that is nothing to be proud of.
And, of course, in 1962 when it was mainly under American pressure that Papua was handed over to Indonesia.
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May 14,1940, the date that can explain everything about Dutch. Harping on American pressure makes it childish and ridiculous. Dutch ran away from Papua before a single Indonesian bomb fell, it seemed they capitulated to Indonesia to save Biak ( or more precisely ” Biakerdam ” , heheheheh).
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So troops of the British Empire taking possession of Indonesian territory from the Japanese Empire in order to hand it over to the Dutch Empire was “liberation” was it?
That the Brits and/or Australians were motivated by the desire to restore the “Dutch empire” is another of BB’s weird notions.
Round about the time of the Indonesian declaration of independence SEAC’s (and with it Mountbatten’s ) territory of command was expanded from just Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Sumatra to the whole of the Netherlands Indies and Southern Indo China.
With this SEAC’s supreme commander had a gigantic task on his hands. In a region bigger than Europe he had to take care of providing help to 120,000 allied prisoners of war and other internees and gathering, disarming and transporting 750,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians.
For this he had 350,000 men available. He allocated the 23rd and 5th Indian division to Java and the 26th Indian division to Sumatra. Their task was strictly limited to helping the internees and getting the Japanese out. Under no condition were they to be used against the troops of the young Republic (that they came to blows in Surabaya was due to a series of mishaps and not a matter of policy). It was also along these lines that on the 19th November 1945 Mountbatten forbade the landing of Dutch troops in Java and Sumatra.
It is not impossible that Mountbatten had a jaundiced view of Dutch colonialism but that had probably little to do with the practical decisions he had to make. About that jaundiced view: this could have partly come, through his wife Edwina, from the South African fantasist “Colonel” Laurens van der Post, the later intimus of Prince Charles and adviser of Thatcher on South Africa. On an early trip through Java Edwina Mountbatten had met him on board of a British warship and apparently fell under the spell of this charming tale spinner. I have said more about him in the comments section here:
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Oh Riki, you ignoramus. Why do you insist on exposing yourself time and again?
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There are few things more distasteful than bragging about, or rubbishing, military actions in which one did not have to risk one’s own life.
When this kind of bragging comes from the Indonesian side one is inclined to ask for a spittoon.
The great specialty of the Indonesian army has been to terrorize unarmed civilians. As soon as it met armed resistance, such as in Aceh and East Timor, its performance was nothing to brag about.
Also, its pretence post 1950 that independence was gained through “perjuangan” rather than “diplomasi” seems to me at least in part an utterly self serving con job. According to the standard work of Dr.de Jong, the erstwhile head of the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, the TNI liquidated in that period tens of thousands of Indonesian supposed “collaborators” of the Dutch. This made it a far more effective killer of Indonesians than Dutchies – and this performance was greatly enhanced in post “perjuangan” years.
This con job was repeated after the hand over of Papua when it seemed to have convinced itself that it had gained the territory through armed struggle or, in more modest moods, through the terrifying prospect for the Dutch of having to deal with its fearsome war machine.The actual “armed struggle” was limited to the so-called “Battle of Vlakke Hoek” on 15th Jan 1962 when a Dutch frigate, Hr.Ms. Evertsen, tangled with three Indonesian motor torpedo boats (of German make) loaded with Indonesian infiltrators who probably had the task to establish a beach head in Kaimana. One of these, the Matjan Tutul, was destroyed as a consequence of which Navy Commodore Soedarso lost his life. The other two turned tail.
The Dutch naval commander asked permission to continue the attack on the Indonesian naval base in the Aroe-islands. The Hague refused this.
The other military operations remained limited to utterly unsuccessful landings by paratroopers. Papuans regarded it as a sport to round these up together with the Dutch. During the UNTEA period those unfortunates who had lost their lives because they got entangled in the canopy and never got out of it had to be tracked down. Papuan police men provided horrific tales on how their remains sometimes had to be shot out of the trees.
Now we are told about the grand things the Indonesian military would have performed if it had had the chance to attack the Dutch in Papua. Yeah …
In Yogjakarta it had, in the years of “perjuangan”, for over three years the chance to fortify this Republican Head Quarters against a Dutch attack. Yet when that attack came, on the 19th of December 1948, the place (and its whole political top including Sukarno and Hatta) were in a few hours in Dutch hands. The army top mainly showed itself adept at escaping.
There. Now I seem to be bragging about Dutch military exploits. Disgusting.
As far as Papua was concerned: it is true that there was no support among the Dutch public at large for a full scale war about the island – a place they knew very little about. Such things count in a democracy.
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Mmmm…No matter your personal opinions on the outcomes, I guess the challenge for BB and Riki is to come up with some actual verifiable facts to justify these weird notions if they expect to be taken seriously in anything.
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Fully enjoying the stories Arie! Reminds me a bit of Kerry B. Collison’s book Borneo Gold where he describes members of Kopassus with their ultra modern American/British weaponry shitting their pants going up against Dayaks with blowpipes in the jungle:)
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I am afraid that all of you are going oigal. Oigalisme is only suitable for wagga wagga boys.
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Still happening M’Rotter another trans-migrant lost his head Friday Night here.
TNI and Police are literally terrified of the Dayaks on their own turf (for that matter, I take particular care not to get on the wrong side).
Riki, You had your chance, fail. As discussed, facts or quality insults or you will be out washing socks with Yasar.
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Can’t really blame them for being a bit angry I guess with the whole sale destruction of Kalimantan…
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Agan, I blame the education system as it is common knowledge that wanking leads to blindness not deafness. Although I guess the real question is do you use two hands? Oh as discussed do try and keep away from local slang as you actually have to be very fluent to use in context and not appear a tool :-). Just trying to help.