DutchNews, January
27, 2016
Photo: Depositphotos.com |
The
Dutch state has been ordered to pay compensation to an Indonesian woman who was
raped by several Dutch soldiers in 1949, when Indonesia was still under Dutch
rule.
The woman, who was 18 at the time, will receive €7,500 in what is thought
to be the first successful compensation claim for a war crime other than
execution.
The court in The Hague said there was sufficient proof that the
woman had been raped by several soldiers at gunpoint in the run up to
independence.
In addition, the court said the state cannot appeal against the
ruling on the basis that it is too old, even though the rapes took place almost
70 years ago.
Other rulings
Last year, judges in The Hague said the Netherlands
must pay compensation to the children and widows of men executed in South
Sulawesi without trial by Dutch soldiers in 1946 and 1947. The claims are still
being looked into.
The Dutch military interventions in Indonesia, or Dutch
Indies as it was known then, followed the proclamation of the independent
Republic of Indonesia in 1945 and lasted until the country formally gained
independence in 1949 after a bloody struggle.
Thousands of Indonesian independence
fighters were executed by the Dutch. At the end of 2011, the Netherlands
finally formally apologised for the massacre of hundreds of men and boys in the
Javanese village of Rawagede in 1947. Those widows, too, have been given
compensation.
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