Netherlands apologises to Indonesia for ‘extreme violence’ during independence war
- Dutch forces burned villages and carried out mass detentions, torture and executions during the 1945-49 conflict, report reveals
- The findings shattered the long-held official line of isolated incidents of excessive violence as the colony it had held for 300 years broke away
The Netherlands prime minister apologised to Indonesia on Thursday after a study found that the Dutch army used “systematic and extreme violence” during Indonesia’s independence war.
Dutch forces burned villages and carried out mass detentions, torture and executions during the 1945-49 conflict, often with tacit government support, said the four-year study by Dutch and Indonesian researchers.
The findings shattered the long-held official Dutch line that there were only isolated incidents of excessive violence by its forces as the colony it had held for 300 years broke away.
“Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I present my deepest excuses to the people of Indonesia for the systematic and extreme violence from the Dutch side in those years,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a press conference.
Rutte said he was also sorry for the “subsequent blind eye by various previous Dutch governments.”
“We also apologise to all those living in the Netherlands who had to live with the consequences of the colonial war in Indonesia, including those war veterans who did behave appropriately,” he added.
It is not the first apology by the Netherlands to Indonesia, as Dutch King Willem-Alexander formally apologised during a visit to Indonesia in 2020 for “excessive violence” during the war. But it the first acknowledgement that there was effectively a deliberate campaign of violence.
