A court in the Netherlands has ruled that the Dutch state is responsible for a massacre in Indonesia committed by its troops in 1947.

The Hague court had decided that the Dutch state was liable for compensation to be paid to relatives of victims despite the act having taken place more than 60 years ago.

The massacre took place in the Java village of Rawagede, where an estimated 150-400 men and boys were shot dead by Dutch troops. The events took place as Indonesia fought for independence from colonial rule, which was recognized in 1949.

Speaking from The Hague on Wednesday, Judge Daphne Schreuder said,

"This court finds that the (Dutch) state acted wrongly through these executions and that the state is liable to pay damages in terms of the law.

[T]he state's argument that the case has expired based on the statute of limitations and of reasonableness and fairness is unacceptable".

The decision comes after a lawsuit was filed by the last surviving victim of the massacre and eight widows of victims.

The ruling however came too late for two of the plaintiffs, as one of the widows and the last victim passed away during proceedings.

Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Ifdhal Kasim noted,

“This is a wake-up call for law enforcement here because in human rights, there is no statute of limitations, as in criminal offenses.”

 “We haven’t seen the light in many cases of human rights abuses here. The Dutch ruling is a good lesson for our government and judicial system to be responsive to the victims.”

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld also remarked that “justice has been done”.

“This means that the state can’t just sit in silence for 60 years waiting for the case to go away or the plaintiffs to die.”

The decision comes months after The Hague ruled that the Netherlands was also liable to pay compensation to the victims of Srebenica, after it ruled Dutch peacekeeping troops failed in their duty to protect them.