From national sacrifice to compensation claims: changing Indonesian representations of the Westerling massacres in South Sulawesi, 1946-47

Abstract

The most notorious Dutch atrocity during the independence struggle was the Westerling massacres of December 1946 to February 1947 in which Dutch special forces (Depot Speciale Troepen, DST) under Captain Raymond Westerling’s command killed thousands of civilians in an attempt to suppress opposition to the formation of the State of Eastern Indonesia. The massacres were commemorated in monuments and official histories, but survivors did not pursue justice for this case until the year 2012, after the less well-known Rawagede case was successfully settled. Using a range of sources, this chapter argues that Indonesian framings of the massacres have expanded over time, from a nationalist framing o..