CEMETERY DUG UP IN SEARCH FOR BONES OF BRITISH AND DUTCH SAILORS

INDONESIA - Indonesian foreign ministry and Dutch embassy looking for bones believed to have come from wrecks of second world war ships

Officials have started to excavate a cemetery in Indonesia in an attempt to identify an alleged mass war grave filled with the possible bones of Dutch and British sailors. A team from the Indonesian foreign ministry this week started to dig up part of the cemetery in Brondong, East Java, looking for bones that may have come from the wrecks of several Dutch and British warships that sank off the coast in the 1942 Battle of the Java Sea. The wrecks are considered sacred war graves but in the past three years have mysteriously vanished, as part of what has been described as the world’s biggest grave robbery. The bones were first identified by Indonesian welders at Brondong port, who between 2014 and 2016 were contracted to cut up old ships, including cargo and trade ships and what they allege were also warships. Bintara, head of the local water police in Brondong, confirmed that a team comprised of representatives from the Indonesian foreign ministry and the Dutch embassy had exhumed the site of an alleged mass grave at Suko cemetery. In the past week the team had investigated three sites where the bones were allegedly dumped, Bintara told the Guardian. (The Guardian)