Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Dutch Ambassador: Regrets about Dutch 1947 Mass Murder in Indonesia


Nikolaos van Dam, Dutch ambassador to Indonesia, has expressed the deep regrets of the Dutch government for the massacre in 1947 in Rawagede in west Java. Sixty years ago Dutch soldiers murdered almost all the men in the village. (There are claims that Rawagede was only one of tens of villages where there were such incidents.) For the first time, the Dutch ambassador participated in the memorial for those murdered. Batara Hutagalung, the representative of the Indonesian committee for Dutch moral debts, said that the ambassador was confusing things. He expressed regrets as if they were apologies, which the Dutch government has not yet offered.
www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article2086946.ece/Diepe_verontschuldigingen_voor_bloedbad_Rawagede

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