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overnment officials were quick to comment after a Dutch court ruled in favor of the victims of a 1947 massacre that left an estimated 150 to 430 men from Rawagede village dead.

However, the government has hardly been involved in helping the victims in seeking justice at the Dutch court. It was the persistence of the massacre’s survivors and a group of Dutch citizens that enabled the victims to force the world to acknowledge their right for justice.

Activists say that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has not resolved dozens of more recent human rights abuse allegations, let alone offered help to Indonesians seeking justice outside of the country.

From the 1965 mass killings case, 1984 Tanjung Priok killings, the 1985 Talangsari murders to the 1998 Semanggi shootings and Munir’s poisoning — none have been thoroughly investigated, according to critics.

However, Presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Indonesia praised the verdict, adding that justice had finally prevailed for the victims.

“Although Indonesia has moved forward since then, it is good that justice has prevailed for the victims. Seeking justice is difficult when every case is situated within a specific context and within a broader picture. We are glad that the Netherlands is willing to take responsibility for it.”

In a landmark ruling issued on Wednesday, a Dutch court said it was “unreasonable” for the Dutch government to argue that the statute of limitations had expired for the 1947 massacre and that damages should be paid to the seven surviving widows.

On hearing the news, 90-year-old Cawi said she felt “blessed” and “thankful”.

She was only 20 years old when Bitol — her husband of two years - left their house early to work in the rice paddies, never to come home.

“It was hard for me to find his body,” she told AP, saying it was tossed onto a heap of corpses.

Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Ifdhal Kasim said that the Dutch court’s ruling should open the eyes of the Indonesian government and law enforcers to the fact that even a case that took place more than 60 years can be prosecuted.

“This is a wake-up call for law enforcement here because in human rights, there is no statute of limitations, as in criminal offenses,” Ifdhal noted.

“We haven’t seen the light in many cases of human rights abuses here. The Dutch ruling is a good lesson for our government and judicial system to be responsive to the victims,” he said.

Despite a 1948 United Nations report condemning the attack as “deliberate and ruthless”, the Dutch government never prosecuted any soldiers for their alleged roles in the killings.

A 1968 Dutch report acknowledged “violent excesses” in Indonesia but argued that Dutch troops were carrying out a “police action” and were often incited by guerrilla warfare and terror attacks.

After a television documentary explored the bloodbath, the government conceded in 1995 that summary executions had taken place in Rawagede, now known as Balongsari, but said prosecutions were no longer possible.

It was not until 2005 that the government formally faced up to the past when then foreign minister Ben Bot expressed deep regret for offenses committed by Dutch forces throughout Indonesia in 1947.

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

It was not immediately clear how much compensation would be paid to the seven widows.