Monday, September 1, 2014

Children of Men Murdered by Dutch Army in Former Dutch Indies Want Compensation


Almost seventy years ago, the Dutch military executed, without trial, thousands of men in the southern part of Sulawesi Island. At that time, the island was part of the Dutch Indies, now Indonesia.  Three children of the murdered have now put in a claim against the Dutch government for compensation.  One of them witnessed, as a child, the murder of his father by Dutch troops.  The three come from the villages of Suppa and Bulukumba, where hundreds of men were executed without trial, and houses were burnt down to the ground.  This was done by the Dutch special troops under the command of Captain Raymond Westerling. In 2011, a Dutch judge condemned the government and ordered it to pay compensation to the widows of the victims of a similar Dutch mass murder in the village of Rawagede, on the Island of Java.

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