JAKARTA // Indonesia yesterday welcomed a Dutch court's finding that the Netherlands was responsible for a 1947 massacre in Indonesia in 1947and that victims' families should be compensated.
The foreign ministry spokesman, Michael Tene, said: "It is an important and significant decision which in effect acknowledges and upholds the rights of those civilian victims of the Dutch military's violent acts."
Eight widows and one survivor from the town of Rawagede, east of Jakarta, took the Netherlands to court in 2008 to claim compensation for the execution of men and boys in 1947 by Dutch troops during Indonesia's independence war.
A three-judge bench of The Hague civil court ruled on Wednesday that seven of the eight widows and the family of the survivor should be compensated.
The survivor, Saih Bin Sakam, died at age 88 in May. An eighth widow died before the court papers were lodged.
Dutch authorities say 150 people died, while a victims' association claims 431 lost their lives during an operation to root out a suspected independence fighter hiding in Rawagede.
The Netherlands has in the past admitted that the executions did indeed take place, and in 2009 decided to donate €850,000 (Dh4.3 million) to the area.
It has avoided using the term "compensation", according to the Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant.
The court rejected the Dutch argument that no claim could be lodged because of an expiry in the statute of limitations in Dutch law of five years, saying it was "unacceptable".
This argument is used by the Indonesian government to avoid trial over the torture and killings of an estimated 500,000 suspected communists and their sympathisers in 1965-66 as the Suharto dictatorship emerged.
A string of other massacres in Indonesia's history have also evaded trial. The Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the human rights group that led investigations into the killings, said The Hague's decision should push Indonesia to address its own past human rights abuses.
"This [massacre in Rawagede] happened more than 60 years ago. It will send a message to our government that they should take responsibility for their own abuses in Indonesia," Kontras's deputy coordinator, Haris Azhar, said.
"Indonesian authorities always use this excuse, that too much time has passed to bring people to justice, but even recent abuse cases are not taken to court," he said.
A prominent Indonesian rights activist, Andreas Harsono, said that the government had done nothing to address past abuses, and that torture continued today, especially in Indonesia's Papua region and in prisons.
"There have been so many massacres across our country, and in fact there have been more killings by authorities in Indonesia's 60 years of independence than there was in the 200 years that the Dutch ruled the country," Mr Harsono said.
Mr Harsono said the ruling would set a precedent for accountability of gross human rights abuses, an issue that he said had fallen off the agenda in recent years.
"Since 9/11 and the United States war on terror, human rights have lost momentum. This decision by The Hague is a huge step forward for human rights around the world."
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
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The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
The biog
Favourite hobby: taking his rescue dog, Sally, for long walks.
Favourite book: anything by Stephen King, although he said the films rarely match the quality of the books
Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption stands out as his favourite movie, a classic King novella
Favourite music: “I have a wide and varied music taste, so it would be unfair to pick a single song from blues to rock as a favourite"
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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