History of Bengkulu

An island where traditional belief is still strong

In the past, a kingdom named Selebar existed in the area of Bengkulu. It was a vassal state of Banten, and
the latter's main source of pepper, cloves, nutmeg and coffee, the trade commodities on which the Javanese
Kingdom thrived. On July 12, 1685, Selebar signed a treaty with the British East India Company which gave
the Britisch the right to build a warehouse and fortification.

First, the British built Fort York. Then, another one arose, located more to the north. Built in 1713-1719,
this latter fortification was named Fort Marlborough. It was the British power seat and influence in these
western parts of the archipelago until 1825, when under the terms of the London Treaty, England handed
over the Dutch territory in exchange for others, ended 139 years of British power in Bengkulu.

Bengkulu was the only British colony in Southeast Asia for over 140 years. It was founded as an alternative
source for pepper, after the Dutch gained rule over Banten in the 17th century. This small British outpost
along a low populated shore however has never been of much value in fact.

The importance of pepper on the world market was rapidly descending and Bengkulu was too far away from
the main trade routes to mean anything. From 1685 to 1825 the books of the British East Indian Company
reports very bad trade, boredom and early death because of malaria.

The British thought that the local population was 'indolent' and it was usual to punish their leaders. When
William Dampier was in Bengkulu in 1690, he found two of those leaders chained because 'they didn't
bring in the demanded amount of pepper to the Fortress'. Outside protests of the British government, this
form of punishment was common into the beginning of the 19th century.

Bengkulu was awakened from apathy during Raffles reign (1818 - 1824), but in 1825 the colony was
transferred to the Dutch, in trade for the acknowledgment of the British influence on the Malaysian peninsula
and Singapore. During his stay in Singapore, Raffles started to explore the sea, what eventually ended in
the founding of Singapore.

His enjoyment over the booming economy of his new colony was overshadowed by the sad fact that three of
his four children died in Bengkulu. The British influence was kept limited to the small coastal planes. The
Dutch annotated the mountainous hinterlands in the 19th century after a number of military expeditions.

Shortly before the turn to the 20th century the Dutch discovered that the mountains near Bengkulu contained
tremendous gold deposits and the province soon became the biggest gold-producing province of the Dutch
Indies.

What is Genocide?
The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes
committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out
in the U.S. Bill of Rights or the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the
rights of individuals.

In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) sought to describe Nazi policies of
systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by
combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing. In
proposing this new term, Lemkin had in mind "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the
destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups
themselves." The next year, the International Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, Germany, charged top
Nazis with "crimes against humanity." The word “genocide” was included in the indictment, but as a
descriptive, not legal, term.
On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust and in no small part due to the tireless efforts of
Lemkin himself, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations
“undertake to prevent and punish.” It defines genocide as:

[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout history and even since the Convention
came into effect, the legal and international development of the term is concentrated into two distinct
historical periods: the time from the coining of the term until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948)
and the time of its activation with the establishment of international criminal tribunals to prosecute the crime
of genocide (1991-1998). Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a
challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.

For more information, please visit the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's
Committee on Conscience (see related links below). The mandate of the Committee on Conscience is to alert
the national conscience, influence policy makers, and stimulate worldwide action to confront and work to halt
acts of genocide or related crimes against humanity.