The Moluccan neighbourhood in a small part of Hoogeveen will remain Moluccan and outsiders will not be allocated houses there, the city council, housing corporation and residents association Maluku Maju have agreed.

Last week a house in the neighbourhood, which was built to house Moluccans after they were moved to the Netherlands from Indonesia in the 1950s, was offered to a Dutch family, much to the fury of locals. The house was daubed with graffiti, saying the area is ‘Moluccan only’.

‘We view the Moluccan neighbourhood as a piece of cultural history and we’d like to keep it that way,’ residents association spokeswoman Melanie Tuasuun told RTV Drenthe. ‘The history of Moluccans in the Netherlands is a difficult one and the wounds are still very deep.’

Tuasuun, daughter of a Moluccan man and Dutch woman, said it is not that no outsiders can live in the community. ‘But there should be a link with Moluccan culture,’ she said.

The Dutch family have since been found another home.

History

The first Moluccans moved to the neighbourhood in 1962, which was specially built for them at the time by the city council.

The Moluccans were brought to the the Netherlands in the wake of the Indonesian independence wars, after the Netherlands could not guarantee them the free state they had promised in return for military support.

Many were housed in camps when they first arrived, including the former Westerbork Nazi transit camp.