MTM Nieuwenhuizen of the Sociale Verzekeringsbank notified us of the closing date of the Dutch Backpay Arrangement:
“The Dutch Backpay Arrangement is intended for those who were alive on August 15th, 2015, and who served with the Dutch East Indies government as a civil servant or KNIL soldier prior to WWII and received no (full) salary during the war years. If the former civil servant or soldier died after August 15th, 2015, heirs can make a request to receive the backpay. The term to submit such a request has been extended for another year, until January 1st, 2018.
People who worked in education or healthcare, whose salaries came out of governmental subsidies, could also be eligible under the backpay arrangement. More information can be found in the policy rules (see http://www.svb.nl/int/nl/veno/brochures_en_formulieren/beleidsregels).
In both the Netherlands and abroad, we try to reach as many people as possible who might be eligible for the arrangement. This concerns a group who are quite elderly, i.e. people who were 16 years or older when the Dutch East Indies capitulated on March 8th, 1942.
For questions or inquiries, please contact:
drs. M.T.M. Nieuwenhuizen
Manager afdeling Verzetsdeelnemers en Oorlogsgetroffenen
Sociale Verzekeringsbank
Stationsplein 1, 2312 AJ Leiden
Postbus 9575, 2300 RB Leiden
Antwoordnummer 10340, 2300 WB Leiden
Telefoon: +31 (0)71 535 6785”
UNQUOTE
The Indo Project did a series on the Indische Kwestie and has expressed its dismay time and again about the Dutch government dragging its feet when it came to not only implementing a backpay arrangement (earlier) but also, when it finally did come through in 2015, it excluded ALL the remaining victims and relatives (besides the group outlined above) who suffered from starvation and torture in the Japanese internment camps and POW prisons. They lost most if not all of their property, as well as bank and life insurance accounts. Right after the war, they suffered further trauma and personal losses during the Bersiap.
Although the Dutch government likes to close the final chapter on the Indische Kwestie, this ‘kwestie” is far from over. In fact, due to the government’s evasion of what is fair and just, the Indische Kwestie has become a matter of negligent transitional justice and could well qualify as a human rights violation.
For new developments check out: http://deindischekwestie.nl/ and check out De Indische Kwestie Facebook group.
Did you wait until most of them were dead on purpose, before giving them back pay? It’s really shameful that anyone had to wait so long for what they were owed. It’s not like you didn’t have the money all those years ago, when Batavia flourished, and the Dutch government prospered. Was it greed that overpowered you from doing the right thing? I think you know the answer.
My father was an Indo serving in the Dutch Navy, captured as POW in Surabaya from March 1942 until August 1945 in Japan.
Is he covered by this repayment?