Indonesia’s own military systematically resorted to extreme violence during Indonesia’s war of independence between 1945 and 1949, according to a recently published scientific report commissioned by the government. It talks about extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary mass arrests and burned villages. In an increasingly bitter colonial war, the law was disregarded at all levels. The Dutch authorities at the time deliberately kept this secret.
The report, on which the renowned Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) has been working since 2017, applies to events in the former Dutch East Indies colony. In August 1945, after the end of the Japanese occupation, Indonesian nationalists had declared themselves independent, which the Netherlands did not recognize until the end of 1949, in order to maintain the former colonial status quo. So far, the colonial war has been classified euphemistically as a “police action”. In contrast, the conclusion of the current study is that what happened three quarters of a century ago fits “into a colonial tradition of violent oppression, racism and exploitation”. More than 100,000 Indonesians and 5,000 Dutch military died at the time.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte found clear words after the publication. “I would like to express my sincere apologies to the people of Indonesia for the systematic and widespread extreme violence on the part of the Netherlands, such as the consistent turning a blind eye of previous cabinets.” Rutte goes significantly further and departs from a reading that his predecessors have advocated for decades: that excessive violence did occur, but remained the exception.
In 2020, Rutte was the first head of government in The Hague to apologize for the Netherlands’ shared responsibility for the persecution of the Jews. Several major cities have so far expressed regret for being involved in the former slave trade. Such a statement by the government has been discussed for years, as has the question of whether reparations for the colonial era are justified.
Colony for 350 years
Turning to postcolonial issues in recent years has mostly been limited to “slavery in the West,” as it was called. That meant the Caribbean region and Suriname. The fact that slavery and oppression also existed “in the East”, i.e. today’s Indonesia, was not an issue for a long time. As recently as 2006, the then Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende recommended that the country return “to the mentality of the East India Company VOC”, which from the 17th century ruled the spice trade from Jakarta and also used violence to emphasize economic concerns.
The historian Reggie Baay, whose parents are from Indonesia, denounced this in his 2015 book There was something horrible conducted (Something terrible was done there), a reference to the notorious VOC governor Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587 – 1629), who wanted to “do great things” in Southeast Asia. Baay: “There is a glaring lack of historical understanding. I look like an Indonesian and I still regularly have to explain what my family wants in the Netherlands. In particular, the last generations often do not even know that there was a colony called the Dutch East Indies for 350 years.” In this respect, the report comes 70 years too late, as the Dutch state has so far denied any responsibility. He also criticizes that the focus is solely on the years of the War of Independence. “This was preceded by a colonial period of more than 350 years, in which, especially since the beginning of the 20th century, tough action was taken against the desire for independence and self-determination.” Baay believes that Rutte’s apologies speak for the prime minister’s integrity. “But it’s also the least he can do.”
Other reactions confirm his judgment on the general historical consciousness. “We are a criminal people,” comments psychologist Ernest van Arendonk in the regional newspaper The Stentor sarcastically the “litany of apologies from our officers.” The tabloid Telegraph asked his readers whether Rutte’s apology was justified. 83 percent declined, mostly with a view to veterans who fought in Indonesia. One letter read: “Now do we apologize for the whole history of the Netherlands?”