Stichting 8 december and OGV will not support reconciliation efforts

Stichting 8 december and the Organization for Peace and Justice (OGV) will not participate in the activity that will be carried out by the Committee Victims and Relatives of Political Violence on December 8. The organizations made it clear that they will not walk alongside the members of the committee who want to construct a path of flowers from the monument of the Interior War to Fort Zeelandia. The committee wants to construct a path of reconciliation between the fort and the monument. Sunil Oemrawsingh, chairman of Stichting 8 december, pointed out that it is unclear to him what the committee hopes to achieve with its action because there is no rupture between the December 8 relatives and the relatives of war victims or victims of war crimes that were committed during the Interior War. “Our organizations have always had a normal relationship with all of the organizations that are in favor of punishing the perpetrators of the war crimes that were committed during the Interior War.” That is why both organizations on December 10 commemorate all victims of serious violations that have been committed since February 25, 1980. The victims of the Interior War are also commemorated explicitly.

Oemrawsingh pointed out that the December 8 victims were tortured and killed in a time of peace because of purely political reasons. “There was no other motive than to maintain political power through murder and intimidation.”

Stichting 8 december and OGV pointed out that the Committee was founded by people who work for or who are associated with suspects of the December 8 killings.