Massacre Victims’ Bodies Piled Up, Turning the River Red

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Imagine a river turning red not because of pollution or a natural phenomenon, but because thousands of people have been massacred and their bodies have filled its waters. That horrific scene unfolded in Batavia (now Jakarta) during the mass killing of Chinese residents by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), 286 years ago today.

The tragedy began with a population issue. At the time, the number of Chinese residents in Batavia was rising rapidly amid a sluggish global economy. According to Benny G. Setiono in Tionghoa dalam Pusaran Politik (2008), their population was estimated at between 4,000 and more than 10,000.

This situation prompted VOC Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier to adopt a policy aimed at reducing the Chinese population in Batavia. One method was to relocate people to other territories, such as Sri Lanka.

However, rumours emerged during the relocations that they were merely a cover. Chinese residents suspected that those sent elsewhere would be thrown into the sea. With no certainty about whether the rumours were true, some began organising resistance.

They armed themselves and attacked several important VOC targets, including sugar mills. The VOC then reinforced its military forces to confront the resistance. Tensions escalated further after dozens of VOC soldiers were reported killed.

The situation became one of the triggers for a far more brutal military operation. Historian M.C. Ricklefs, in A History of Modern Indonesia (1999), writes that on 9 October 1740 Valckenier deployed a large force to search Chinese neighbourhoods in Batavia, both inside and outside the city walls. The massacre began the following day.

Chinese people who were found were killed, regardless of age or sex. According to G. Bernhard Schwarzen’s account in Reise in Ost-Indien (1751), the number of victims was so great that Batavia’s streets, alleys and canals were filled with bodies.

“Indeed, our feet would not get wet when crossing the canals if we walked over the piles of corpses,” Schwarzen wrote.

Nearby waterways also turned red as bodies accumulated. The river that ran through the area later became known as Kali Angke.

According to Alwi Shahab’s book Betawi: Queen of the East (2002), the name Angke is said to derive from two Hokkien words: ang, meaning red, and ke, meaning river. The name is thus interpreted as “red river”, a reference to the many bodies once found there.

Another account, however, attributes the name Kali Angke to a figure called Tubagus Angke. Whatever the origin, an estimated tens of thousands of Chinese residents died in the massacre, which continued until 22 October 1740. Their homes were also looted and destroyed.

The event went down in history as the Geger Pecinan, one of the darkest episodes of Batavia under VOC rule. In its aftermath, the VOC began restricting Chinese residents’ freedom of movement by grouping them in a designated area.