Dutch Press Review Wednesday 23 May 2012

As the European Stability Mechanism debate gets promoted to the top slot in today’s papers, there’s a new theme for September’s national elections - Europe and the euro. If the financial crisis wasn’t enough for any EU country to deal with, the Netherlands is confronted with the ghosts and the cruelty of its colonial past. And even more cruelty from the past – nuns as pioneers of waterboarding. Is Robben’s Champions League penalty blunder a godsend for Holland?

Colonial bloodbath to end in claims
“A boy is walking behind a plough in a rice field. The plough has an engine – a kind of tractor on two wheels. It’s hard work, but the 14-year-old youth manages it effortlessly. Here in Bulukumba he’s considered old enough to man the plough and, indeed, for other things in life.”

De Volkskrant sets a scene of serenity, like a script from a travel book. Until the pay-off comes: “The boy in the paddy field would also have been old enough to take a bullet from the Dutch military troops who carried out a ‘cleansing action’ here in 1947.”

The odds were high he would have died by a Dutch bullet, the paper tells us. A special commando unit went on a killing rampage, executing 214 boys and men older than eight years in Bulukumba, the rice field town at the beginning of the narrative. The special forces then moved on to other villages and towns on the island now called Sulawesi, ending with the blood of thousands on their hands.

Families of ten of the victims have decided to file compensation claims following the success of widows in Rawagede, another infamous bloodbath incident. Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld feels confident about a successful outcome - that the boys and men were executed without any form of trial is a fact. In the Rawagede case, the judge ruled it was not subject to the statutes of limitations because “a case cannot be considered too old if you murder people and consequently, in full knowledge, allow the murders to go unpunished.”

Zegveld has approached Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal about the case, who has until 31 May to make a decision. “The foreign ministry does not wish to respond before that date.”

Schism between politicians and voters on euro
Yesterday’s press review reported on the Christian Union party’s decision to vote against ratification of the European Stability Mechanism. The party couldn’t have it on its conscience doling out 40 billion euros of taxpayers’ money to Brussels – the annual budget for education and public safety combined.

This morning’s papers have devoted front or double-page splashes to yesterday evening’s debate on the issue in parliament. Geert Wilders tried to push back the debate until after the general elections scheduled in September, but that motion was rejected.

Not only financial markets but also the people of the EU “have little confidence in the battle against the euro crisis,” write nrc.next. Endorsement of the ESM will see delays in at least four countries – the Netherlands, Estonia, Germany and Ireland. Nrc.next does an in-depth analysis of the consequences of the permanent bailout fund, identifying one major drawback. Only Germany, France and Italy have the power to decide when a country can dip into the fund, but the Netherlands or other smaller countries don’t.

“If Europe is to be the theme of the elections, then the campaign kicked off yesterday evening,” writes de Volkskrant. A majority of MPs are in favour of ratifying the accord right now, but an opinion poll among voters show a dissenting voice, the paper says. Two of out three people want to delay the decision until after the September elections.

Wilders has sought an injunction against the state to block ratification. “Even if Upper House also votes in favour of the ESM treaty and the judge laughs his head off because Wilders is at the wrong address with his injunction, the Freedom Party leader is keeping to his promise when he brought about the fall of the Rutte cabinet. His election campaign will revolve around Europe,” concludes de Volkskrant.

Hail Mary, full of hate
Wim Deetman who led an inquiry into abuse at Catholic homes for boys is starting a second inquiry, reports Trouw. “This investigation will focus on the suffering of women who were abused as girls. The inquiry will not only cover sexual abuse, like the first inquiry, but also physical and psychological cruelty.”

“Especially women who were forced to enter institutions after the war because they had a child out of wedlock, sometimes following a rape, got a special kind of ‘re-education’. These girls were discarded as whores.”

De Telegraaf did its investigative homework and found some of the victims. One of them is a 65-year-old woman who was in an orphanage between 1950 and 1957.

“If you told a fib or misbehaved, you were grabbed by your feet, held upside down and then your head was pushed into a bucket of cold water – five buckets in a row. If you knocked over one bucket, then you went on to the next one until you stopped putting up a fight. I often went through the five.”

One memory haunts the woman. “One disobedient girl was put into a bath filled with cold water to cool off on her own. Suddenly, we all saw water flowing under the door. She had drowned.”

Another victim contacted Deetman to highlight the plight of female victims of the Catholic church. She was subjected to various degrees of torture – soap was shoved into her [vagina], she was locked up in a mouse-infested basement and hit with an iron ruler. She was never able to develop a sexual relationship afterwards. “Their celibacy became my celibacy.”’

Hope for autism sufferers
For those suffering with autism, there is scientific hope. Medical experts at the Utrecht and Radboud university hospitals are optimistic that autism will be treatable in the future, thanks to a 30-million-euro grant which will facilitate the necessary research, reports AD.

“It’s difficult to cure autism,” says a molecular neuroscientist, “because there are usually genetic factors involved. But you can limit the effects enormously, which make the difference between being institutionalised and being able to live independently.”

The Dutch university hospitals are working together with 20 other European universities and six pharmaceutical companies. Patients will have to wait for about ten years before the much-awaiting medicine appears on the market.

Robben booed by Bayern fans
Poor Arjen Robben. First, the devastation after he missed a crucial penalty in the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea. Now, the humiliation of boos and jeers from fans of Bayern when he came on as a substitute for Holland in a friendly against his own club on Tuesday evening.

“Each time he touched the ball the stadium was filled with whistles. The old guard from Bayern defended him while the rest booed,” writes De Telegraaf. The paper hopes his pain will be softened before the European Championship, when Robben plays for the Holland squad.

“The penalty blunder is a godsend for Holland,” writes AD. “They [the Germans] have to get over the anguish of defeat, not us. We’ll see what happens on 13 June.” Holland play Germany in the group stage then – both are in Group B, dubbed the “group of death”.

There was much anguish and suffering in today’s papers. But summer has arrived and there are also photos of bikinis and jumping the waves.