I

do wish to see the perpetrators of the 1965 genocide put on trial and let justice be served, since those who are responsible are even still in power. That has to change and the Indonesians who brought this to the international tribunal have done the right thing.

But when talking about a fair ground, I believe the Dutch should confront their past as well. Are there any records regarding the centuries of Dutch occupation since they arrived in the region? It'€™s too naive to just think the Dutch never committed murders up to the level of the 1965 genocide along their long history of occupation in this country.

Perhaps the only known record is of the atrocities committed during the Dutch offensive against the guerrilla forces. The Marshall plan included most European countries who suffered greatly after World War II, including the Netherlands.

However, instead of using the budget to reconstruct its own homeland, the Dutch used the money to fund the offensive to reclaim the Dutch East Indies, in which 15,000 Indonesians were killed.

I'€™m not defending the perpetrators of the 1965 genocide by saying the things above; those that have been interviewed by Oppenheimer were awful human beings, who proudly described how they murdered their own people.

They should be put on trial. But for the sake of fairness, can the Dutch recognize what they did in the former Dutch colonies that remains to be seen.

Simba1001
Jakarta