Court Orders the Netherlands to Compensate for Crime 67-years Ago
28 January 2016 22:04 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A court in The Hague has ordered the Netherlands to pay 7,500 Euro to an Indonesian woman as a form of compensation of rape committed by several of the country's soldiers back in 1949.
The decision is considered to be the first successful compensation claim for a war crime other than execution.
The court said that it has enough proof to confirm the crime had taken place back then, and stated that the Netherlands cannot file an appeal because the case is too old, almost 70 years ago.
Similar ruling had also taken place last year, where The Hague claimed that the Netherlands must pay compensation to the children and widows of men the country had executed in South Sulawesi without proper trial in 1946 and 1947. The claim however, is still being examined.
At the end of 2011, the Netherlands had formally extended its apology for the massacre of hundreds of men and boys in the Javanese village of Rawagede in 1947.
MAHINDA ARKYASA
