Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima arrived at the Kalibata Heroes Memorial Park in South Jakarta on Tuesday to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence in remembrance of the dead.

Later that day, light rain and poetry greeted the royal couple as they visited another war cemetery just a few kilometers north, paying their respects to the fallen from one of the darkest periods in the shared history of Indonesia and the Netherlands.

The pilgrimage to Kalibata and later to Ereveld Menteng Pulo — a Dutch-administered burial site housing wartime casualties from World War II and the Indonesian struggle for independence — drove home a message that many in Indonesia have waited to hear for the past 74 years.

In a statement delivered at Bogor Palace in West Java, King Willem-Alexander apologized for the “excessive violence” inflicted on Indonesia during his country’s colonial rule, the first public admission of regret by the Dutch monarchy that experts say paves the way for a brighter shared future for the two nations.

The apology addresses the violence inflicted by Dutch forces from Indonesia’s declaration of independence on Aug. 17, 1945, to Dec. 27, 1949, when the Netherlands officially recognized it as a sovereign nation.

In his speech, the Dutch king also acknowledged Indonesia’s Independence Day on Aug. 17, 1945, the day when founding father Sukarno read out the country's Proklamasi (declaration of independence).

The king expressed regret for the “painful separation” in the years immediately after Proklamasi, which he acknowledged “had cost many lives”.

"In line with earlier statements by my government, I would like to express my regret and apologies for the excessive violence on the part of the Dutch in those years," the king said as he stood alongside President Joko “Jokowi “Widodo in Bogor on Tuesday. "I do so in the full realization that the pain and sorrow of the families affected continue to be felt today."

The king’s statement makes right a previous attempt by the monarchy to make amends to its former colony. Queen Beatrix, in her visit to Indonesia 25 years ago, stopped short of offering a formal apology, after she was reportedly held back by then-prime minister Wim Kok, who intimated that the small European kingdom was not yet ready for such a grand gesture.

Previously, Dutch officials at various levels of government had apologized for the violence during this four-year period of struggle.

In 2011, then-ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwaan apologized to relatives of victims killed in Rawagede village in Karawang, West Java, in December 1947. Around 430 villagers were killed by Dutch troops at the time.

De Zwaan apologized again in 2013 for summary executions carried out in South Sulawesi during the Westerling tragedy, a series of mass killings between December 1946 and February 1947 during military operations under East Indies Army officer Raymond Westerling. The massacre came to symbolize other tragedies of a similar magnitude in this period.

No exact data is available on how many people died in the massacre, but most Dutch media outlets have reported that between 3,000 and 5,000 people had perished.

The monarch’s apology — though it may be seen as nothing more than an historical gesture by the current generation of Indonesians and Dutch — will nonetheless alleviate the pain of those whose relatives were victims of Dutch occupation during that period, experts have said.

Historian Ahmad Sunjayadi from the University of Indonesia welcomed the apology, noting that the Dutch monarchy had yet to explicitly recognize the 1945 declaration of independence.

Ahmad said Queen Beatrix had failed to raise this issue during her 1995 visit and even delayed her arrival to Aug. 21 despite being invited specifically to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day.

Official recognition for Indonesia’s Independence Day was expressed only a decade later on Aug. 16, 2005, by then-Dutch foreign minister Ben Bot.

“But they have yet to revise their acknowledgement of the 1945 independence in their constitution,” said Ahmad. “To pay a visit this month instead of in August seems like the king is trying to avoid debate over the recognition of Indonesian independence,” he added.

The government, for the most part, has welcomed the first royal apology from the Dutch.

"Of course, we cannot erase history, but we can still learn from the past. It serves as a lesson for our commitment to growing a relationship that is equal and mutually beneficial," Jokowi said during the joint press statement.

The Dutch royal visit went ahead in spite of the recent announcement that Indonesia has 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Indonesia and the Netherlands sought to improve their economic ties with some US$1 billion in pledged investment deals inked during the royal delegation’s stopover in Bogor, according to Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi.

The sum will go to the development of a storage terminal by Dutch company Royal Vopak, the development of a dairy production facility by Friesland Campina and an investment in Indonesia’s upstream oil and gas industry by energy giant Royal Dutch Shell.

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