Dutch court: Compensate Indonesian massacre widows

A Dutch court ordered the government Wednesday to compensate the widows of seven villagers who were summarily executed and a man shot and wounded in a notorious massacre during Indonesia's bloody battle for independence from colonial rule.

The Hague Civil Court ruled it was "unreasonable" for the government to argue that the widows were not entitled to compensation because the statute of limitations had expired.

"Justice has been done," said plaintiffs' lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld. "This means that the state can't just sit in silence for 60 years waiting for the case to go away or the plaintiffs to die and then appeal to the statute of limitations."

The judgment paves the way for a case to establish the level of indemnities to be paid to the relatives.

However Zegveld said its narrow focus on widows of massacre victims means it is unclear whether it will expose the Dutch state to a flood of compensation claims from other relatives of people killed during the Dutch fight to retain control over the Dutch East Indies, which became Indonesia in 1949.

The widows deserved compensation because they were in the village at the time of their husbands' deaths and so suffered directly, Zegveld said.

The government had previously expressed its regret for the 1947 massacre in the village of Rawagedeh in western Java, but said it happened too long ago to consider restitution for victims. Dozens of men were shot by Dutch troops during the massacre, which the Dutch called at the time a "police action" to quell an uprising.

In an initial reaction, government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers said he was surprised by the ruling and would carefully study the 17-page judgment before deciding whether to appeal.

The ruling came too late for two of the plaintiffs - one widow died earlier this year as did a man also covered by the ruling who also was granted compensation because he was shot and wounded during the mass executions.