Boven-Digoel | |
---|---|
Country | Kingdom of the Netherlands |
Colony | Dutch East Indies |
Location | Remote area on the banks of the river Digul |
Opened | 1927 |
Closed | 1947 |
Founded by | Dutch colonial government |
Boven-Digoel was a Dutch concentration camp for political prisoners operated in the Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1947. It was located in a remote area on the banks of the river Digul, in what is now Boven Digoel Regency in South Papua, Indonesia. The site was chosen in 1928 for the internal exile of Indonesians implicated in the 1926 and 1927 communist uprisings in Java and Sumatra. [1] Indonesian nationalists not associated with the Indonesian Communist Party were subsequently also sent there.
The camp was located in an isolated part of Papua, and surrounded by hundreds of miles of impenetrable jungle and hostile Papua tribes, so that contact with the outside world, and escape, was next to impossible. It was notorious for its endemic malaria. [2] [3]
The Boven-Digoel detainees had not been tried and sentenced to prison. Instead, they were exiled to the camp by the Governor-General using so-called exorbitante rechten which permitted him to exile any resident of the colony. Exile was not a judicial process and was not subject to appeal. [1]
Among those interned here were writer Marco Kartodikromo, [3] Mohammad Hatta, who would become the first vice president of Indonesia, Sutan Sjahrir, the first Indonesian Prime Minister [4] and Soetitah who was chair of the women's section of the Communist party. [5]
Conditions were not good in the camp, especially for those prisoners who refused to work for the Dutch; one former journalist, Lie Eng Hok, wrote a letter to his former paper Sin Po in 1929 about worsening conditions, which was translated and reprinted in the Dutch press. [6] [7] In it, he noted that the camp authorities had reduced the prisoners' stipend by one quarter and that by the following year, they would no longer receive any at all, and that the prisoners were becoming so poor that they could no longer afford to spend money on each others' "businesses". On the other hand, the camp doctor L. J. A. Schoonheyt published a book about his experiences there in which he claimed conditions in the camp were ideal and even pleasant; copies of the book made their way back to camp internees who were enraged by his whitewashing. [8] [9] Another issue was that the tree cover had been so thoroughly cleared to make space for the camp that there was no shade from the sun in most of the camps. [10]
In the late 1930s, the Dutch continued to use Digoel as a way to threaten dissidents in the Indies; in 1938 the Governor General proposed that twelve more communists be exiled there, mostly members of Tan Malaka's new independent Communist movement Pari but also PKI members who had been in clandestine communication with communists in the Netherlands. [11] [12] These people who were nominated for exile were kept in "pretrial detention" for some time. [13]
In May 1940, the Dutch colonial ministry decided to stop referring to Boven-Digoel as a concentration camp, seeing how the Nazi use of such camps was making it politically unpopular; they sent a memo to all departments to cease using that term. [14]
Most detainees were evacuated to Australia during the Second World War, but the camp was abolished only in 1947. [1]
Several accounts or novelizations of life in the camp were released while it was still operating. These include Drama di Boven Digoel by Kwee Tek Hoay, serialized in the magazine Panorama from 1929–32 and published in book form in 1938; Darah dan aer-mata di Boven Digoel by Oen Bo Tik (1931), Antara idoep dan mati atawa Boeron dari Boven-Digoel by Wiranta (1931); Merah by Lim Khing Ho (1937); Siasat yang Dahsyat by Shamsuddin Saleh (1936); Boven-Digoel: Het land van communisten en kannibalen by L. J. A. Schoonheyt (1936); and Indonesia, een politiestaat by van Munster and former detainee Soekaesih. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
The Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, himself a political prisoner during the New Order era, was very interested in Boven-Digoel. He released a 2001 anthology of accounts of the camp titled Cerita dari Digul (Stories from Digul), and the protagonist of his 1985 novel Footsteps experiences exile to the Eastern parts of the Indies as well. Chalid Salim, a former Digoel prisoner, also published his account in the Netherlands in 1973, titled Vijftien jaar Boven-Digoel: concentratiekamp in Nieuw-Guinea: bakermat van de Indonesische onafhankelijkheid. It was published in Indonesian translation in 1977 as Limabelas tahun Digul: kamp konsentrasi di Nieuw Guinea, tempat persemaian kemerdekaan Indonesia. [21]
Muhammad Hatta Lukman was an Indonesian communist politician, who served as the First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and a member of the People's Representative Council from 1956 until 1959. He was executed following the 1965 crackdown on the PKI.
The Digul River is a major river in South Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is the fourth longest river in New Guinea after the Sepik River, Mamberamo River, and Fly River. With a total length of 853 km (530 mi) and a drainage basin of 45,900 km2 (17,700 sq mi).
Tanah Merah is a town in the South Papua province of Indonesia on the bank of Digul River, located some two hundred miles from Merauke within the interior of Western New Guinea. It is the administrative center of Boven Digoel Regency.
Boven Digoel Regency is an inland regency (kabupaten) in the northeastern part of the Indonesian province of South Papua. It was split off from Merauke Regency on 12 November 2002. It is bordered to the south by the residual Merauke Regency, to the west by Mappi Regency, and to the north by the province of Highland Papua. At the same time, to the east lies the international border with Papua New Guinea.
Kwee Tek Hoay was a Chinese Indonesian Malay-language writer of novels and drama, and a journalist.
Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang is a 1927 vernacular Malay-language novel written by Kwee Tek Hoay. The seventeen-chapter book follows a plantation manager, Aij Tjeng, who must leave his beloved njai (concubine) Marsiti so that he can be married. Eighteen years later, after Aij Tjeng's daughter Lily dies, her fiancé Bian Koen discovers that Marsiti had a daughter with Aij Tjeng, Roosminah, who greatly resembles Lily. In the end Bian Koen and Roosminah are married.
Allah jang Palsoe is a 1919 stage drama from the Dutch East Indies that was written by the ethnic Chinese author Kwee Tek Hoay based on E. Phillips Oppenheim's short story "The False Gods". Over six acts, the Malay-language play follows two brothers, one a devout son who holds firmly to his morals and personal honour, while the other worships money and prioritises personal gain. Over more than a decade, the two learn that money is not the path to happiness.
The Netherlands Indies Government Information Service (NIGIS) was a civil secret service and propaganda organisation based in Australia, during and after World War II. NIGIS was affiliated with the Netherlands East Indies Forces Intelligence Service (NEFIS) and the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA).
Neratja, later Hindia Baroe, was a Malay language newspaper printed from 1917 to 1926 in Weltevreden, Dutch East Indies. Although originally founded with government support to be a Malay voice for the Dutch Ethical Policy, before long it became associated with the Sarekat Islam and the Indonesian National Awakening. Among its editors were important figures of the Indonesian national movement such as Abdul Muis and Agus Salim.
Lie Eng Hok (1893-1961) was an Indonesian independence activist and Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) supporter in the Dutch East Indies. He was also a journalist for the popular Chinese Indonesian newspaper Sin Po. The Dutch government accused him of being involved in the 1926 Banten rebellion and exiled him to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp from 1927 to 1932. He was a personal friend of Wage Rudolf Supratman, author of the Indonesian national anthem. He was granted the status of Pioneer of Independence by the Indonesian government in 1959.
Aliarcham (c.1901-1933) was a Sarekat Islam and Indonesian Communist Party party leader, activist and theoretician in the Dutch East Indies. He was a major figure behind the PKI's turn to more radical policies in the mid-1920s. He was arrested by Dutch authorities in 1925 and exiled to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp, where he died in 1933. He became a well-known Martyr, especially among Communists and Indonesian nationalists.
Jodensavanne was a Dutch internment camp for political prisoners from the Dutch East Indies operated in Surinam during World War II. The camp was named after a nearby, long-abandoned Jewish colony, Jodensavanne.
Soetitah was a Sarekat Islam and Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) propagandist, activist, and schoolteacher in Semarang, Dutch East Indies in the 1910s and 1920s. She was a close ally of Semaun, Tan Malaka, and other Semarang communists of the time and was chair of the women's section of the party in the early 1920s. She was exiled by the Dutch to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp from 1927 to 1930.
Louis Johan Alexander Schoonheyt (1903-1986), commonly known as L. J. A. Schoonheyt, was a Dutch medical doctor, writer, and supporter of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands before World War II. From 1935 to 1936 he was the camp doctor at the Boven-Digoel concentration camp in New Guinea, Dutch East Indies, and is mostly known today for the book he wrote about his experiences there, Boven-Digoel: Het land van communisten en kannibalen (1936). His praise for the conditions in the camp earned him the ire of the internees, Indonesian nationalists, and Dutch human rights advocates; E. du Perron called him a 'colonial bandit', while many internees burned his book after reading it in the camp.
Moenasiah was a Sarekat Islam and Indonesian Communist Party leader active in Semarang, Central Java, Dutch East Indies during the 1920s. She was chairperson of the women's section of the Communist Party for a time in the 1920s. She was exiled by Dutch authorities to Boven-Digoel concentration camp from 1927 to 1930.
Soekaesih was a Communist Party of Indonesia activist known for being one of only a handful of female political prisoners exiled by the Netherlands government to Boven-Digoel concentration camp. After being released she traveled to the Netherlands in the late 1930s and campaigned for the camp to be shut down.
Siem Piet Nio, who wrote under the pen name Hong Le Hoa, was an Indonesian language writer, magazine editor, journalist and Women's rights advocate from the Dutch East Indies who was active during the 1920s and 1930s.
Njonja Tjoa Hin Hoei, who was born Kwee Yat Nio and was also known by the Buddhist name Visakha Gunadharma, was a Chinese Indonesian journalist, writer, Buddhist figure, and political activist during the late colonial and early independence periods. She was especially known for being publisher and editor of a women's magazine Maandblad Istri which ran from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
Abdoe'lxarim M. S., who was born Abdoel Karim bin Moehamad Soetan, was a journalist and Communist Party of Indonesia leader. He was interned in Boven-Digoel concentration camp from 1927 to 1932. During World War II, he collaborated with the Japanese and became an important figure in recruiting support for them in Sumatra; after their defeat he then became a key figure in the anti-Dutch republican forces during the Indonesian National Revolution.
Urbanus Pardede was an Indonesian Communist and newspaper editor from Sumatra, active both in the Dutch East Indies and independence eras. During the years 1926–30, Dutch authorities arrested him without charge because of his Communist activities and exiled him to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp. He was also a key figure in the East Sumatra revolution of 1946 and became bupati of Simalungan Regency in the early independence era.
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