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Of war crimes and apologies: Lessons from the Dutch war in Indonesia
It should be remembered that the Dutch waged war in Indonesia following the German occupation of the Netherlands, which greatly humiliated the country.
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A mural in Rawagede, West Java, depicts the 1947 massacre of Indonesians committed by Dutch military troops. (AFP/Romeo Gacad)
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hould one be surprised, appreciate or simply take for granted when a foreign power that had colonized your country for centuries acknowledged its war crimes and offered a sincere apology? In the case of the Dutch, there are good reasons not to be shocked, but to qualify the offer and welcome the lessons of history.
The Dutch government last week expressed a “deep apology” to all victims of Indonesia’s struggle for independence (1945-1949), both the Indonesian people and Dutch war veterans — given that the latter had been forced to fulfill their duties assigned by the then-ruling politicians — and others at home.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s statement followed the result of a government-sponsored academic investigation into the conduct of the Dutch army and the fate of both the local victims and others who were involved. The report, written by a number of historians, consists of no less than 14 books that will be translated into English and Indonesian.
As early as 1969, Joop Hueting, a former soldier, came out as a whistleblower, confessing his own crime of the indiscriminate killing of villagers and speaking of similar acts committed by his fellow soldiers. The decades that followed saw comments, articles and books from various sources and sections of society that pointed to similar acts. War veterans slammed Hueting, some reportedly threatened him with terror.
Hueting’s revelation led to a government investigation that resulted in De Excessennota (1969), which suggests that all that happened was simply excesses — nothing structural nor systemic. The true scale of the alleged crimes was thus kept secret and covered up. As one recent book proves, even if substantiated, any war crime during 1945-1949 had to be excluded from the judicial process.
It was the government-sponsored great works of Loe de Jong on the Netherlands during World War II, published in the mid-1980s, that first suggested the term oorlogsmisdaad (war crime) for the Dutch army's acts in Indonesia. He soon encountered fierce resistance from war veterans Ied by Karl Heshuhius, a former cavalry commander in Bandung, West Java. I remember meeting De Jong in parliament and interviewing Heshuhius, who falsely argued that De Jong was wrong because, being a socialist, he had acted against the Soeharto regime.
Being accused of being a war criminal was a great insult. Given the societal pressures, alas, De Jong had to succumb and abandoned the term.
