Published on : 13
December 2011 - 4:47pm | By claire wilson (Photo: RNW/ Michel Maas)
The footage of Dutch ‘Wiedergutmachung’ in Rawagede has
rubbed some Dutch expats the wrong way. Claire Wilson in Malaysia feels deeply
embarrassed by the late apologies and the meagre 20,000 euros’ worth of
compensation for the six remaining next of kin; received from the hands of a
flower petal strewing Dutch ambassador.
Seeing a photograph of a relative of one of the victims of
the Rawagede massacre was an exercise in humility for me. On 9 December 1947,
Dutch troops entered the Indonesian village of Rawagede and killed 431 men and
boys. Humility, because the next of kin (the last survivor died six months ago)
showed the Dutch government what inner refinement means without uttering a
single word. What it does not mean is making a ‘noble’ 20,000-euro gesture to
assuage your conscience.
Headstone
The Dutch government
is always eager to point its finger at other countries and show them the errors
of their ways. On 9 December 2011, that same government showed it did not
understand how corny the one-man show put up by Ambassador Tjeerd de Zwaan
really was, clumsily strewing flower petals on the victims’ rudimentary graves.
Was there really absolutely nobody in the Dutch government
or among the embassy staff who asked whether the next of kin - in addition to
the 20,000 euros - might like a headstone on the graves of their loved ones?
What the Netherlands did in 1947 was horrific. And what the Dutch government
failed to do 64 years later was unforgiveable and a cause for acute
embarrassment among Dutch people abroad who are able to distinguish right from
wrong.
Inner civilisation
Wanti Sariman, one of
the six surviving next of kin, was 26 and pregnant with her second child when
her husband Tarman was shot dead by Dutch soldiers in Rawagade. She, and the
other next of kin, have shown the Dutch government in the years following the
massacre what inner refinement means, something that neither the 1947
government nor any of the succeeding Dutch governments possessed.
Some among you may blame me for being bitter, for seeing
problems where there are none. But I know all too well, from my own experience,
what war does to a person, what it smells like, feels like and what it looks
like. As a child, I saw with my own eyes what some people can do to – innocent
– others.
Maybe the Dutch government thought it was doing the right
thing when it made Tjeerd de Zwaan walk through gravel, strewing flower petals
on the victims’ graves from a reed basket. Fact is that thanks to the
television footage the whole world now knows there is blood on that pointing
finger, and has been for decades.
‘Police actions’
No Dutch government
has ever made even the slightest attempt to prosecute the soldiers who carried
out the massacre. In spite of a UN report which characterised the attack on
Rawagede as ‘intentional and merciless’. The report was published back in 1948.
Only in 1968 did the Netherlands admit that violent excesses
had occurred in Indonesia, which it then sought to belittle by arguing they
were actually ‘police actions’ provoked by guerillas. In practice, these
actions meant to arrest, line up and execute unarmed men and boys; put the dogs
on those who manage to escape into the plantation and shoot them to let them
bleed to death in the muddy swamp water.
Closure
To us, elderly Dutch
citizens living abroad, it came as a shock to hear and read about this
massacre, to see the photographs. Many of us lived through World War II, and later
watched the ships return from the Dutch East Indies packed with Dutch soldiers
and their Indonesian girlfriends and wives. Dutch history has many black pages.
The courageous women from Rawagede on Friday simply said: 'We close this
chapter'.
We should be grateful to God that these next of kin were
still alive to get that closure.
(gsh/nc/tt)
=========================================
Dutch expat Claire Wilson
Claire (70) and her Australian husband live on top of a
mountain in the federal state of Penang in Malaysia. They travel a lot, and
Claire loves to write, paint and fuss over her orchids, which she grows on her
balcony which offers a view of the Malacca Straits. Claire characterises
herself as a ‘late bloomer’.
Dutch 'police actions'
The Dutch East Indies were occupied by Japan in March 1942.
After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, nationalist leader Sukarno
proclaimed Indonesian independence from the Netherlands. In 1947 and 1948-1949
Dutch forces carried out two seperate operations against nationalist forces in
an attempt to restore Dutch rule over its former colony. The Dutch authorities
call the military operations the 'police actions'. Eventually - as a result of
huge pressure from the United States – the Netherlands was forced to recognise
Indonesian independence in December 1949. About 150,000 Indonesians and 6,000
Dutch were killed in the fighting.
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