{"id":100661,"date":"2020-04-02T16:11:16","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100661"},"modified":"2020-04-02T16:11:16","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T23:11:16","slug":"hague-court-orders-dutch-state-to-pay-out-over-colonial-massacres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/02\/hague-court-orders-dutch-state-to-pay-out-over-colonial-massacres\/","title":{"rendered":"Hague court orders Dutch state to pay out over colonial massacres"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel Boffey<\/a><\/strong> in Brussels Courtesy The Guardian (UK)<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Indonesian man forced to watch his father\u2019s execution is among those who will get compensation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Liesbeth<\/a>
 Liesbeth Zegveld, the claimants\u2019 lawyer, in Indonesia in 2011. Photograph: Achmad Ibrahim\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An Indonesian man forced to watch his father\u2019s summary execution by a Dutch soldier when he was 10 years old has spoken of his gratitude after a court in The Hague ordered the Dutch state to pay compensation to victims of colonial massacres in the 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andi Monji, 83, who travelled to the Netherlands<\/a> to tell his story to the court, was awarded \u20ac10,000 (\u00a39,000) while eight widows and three children of other executed men, mainly farmers, were awarded compensation of between \u20ac123.48 and \u20ac3,634 for loss of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cases concerned men killed by soldiers in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi between December 1946 and April 1947 during so-called cleansing actions\u201d as the Dutch sought to repress moves towards independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court found that 11 men had been killed as a result of misbehaviour by Dutch soldiers, mostly by summary executions. One man was randomly shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monji\u2019s father was executed on 28 January 1947 in the village of Suppa. More than 200 men are believed to have been executed by the Dutch military that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monji, who still lives in Suppa, said: I\u2019m grateful for the court\u2019s ruling. I was 10 years old when I was forced to witness my father being executed by Dutch military after first being heavily beaten. I was crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also grateful that I had the chance to travel to the Netherlands to attend the court hearing so I could explain the court what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan occupied the then Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies during the second world war, and after its capitulation the nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia<\/a> on 17 August 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the following four years, the Netherlands fought to prolong its 350 years of colonial rule of the country, often through barbaric means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch state had argued for the claims to be struck out given the time that had passed since the acts were committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Relatives of Dutch colonial victims in Indonesia to get day in court<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 Read more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liesbeth Zegveld, the claimants\u2019 lawyer, said: We\u2019re pleased with the ruling. It wasn\u2019t easy; it took eight years of proceedings. It\u2019s a pity that the Netherlands government hasn\u2019t been more forthcoming, as many of our clients passed away during the proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, for those still alive and all the families, the court\u2019s recognition of their suffering and their entitlement to compensation is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court recognised in its ruling that the sums granted the relatives of victims were disproportionate\u201d to the suffering caused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Boffey in Brussels Courtesy The Guardian (UK) Indonesian man forced to watch his father\u2019s execution is among those who will get compensation An Indonesian man forced to watch his father\u2019s summary execution by a Dutch soldier when he was 10 years old has spoken of his gratitude after a court in The Hague ordered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}