By UPI Staff
Women train for the Indonesian war for independence in 1945.
File Photo by Wikimedia Commons.
Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the systematic and widespread violence exercised by the Netherlands during the 1945-49 Indonesian war of independence.
An inquiry revealed that the Netherlands' military and intelligence services were sanctioned by the highest levels of government to carry out executions and torture in Indonesia.
Since 1969, the Netherlands has held that there were only isolated cases of excess violence and that the armed forces behaved correctly.
The report -- the result of a four-and-a-half-year research project funded by the government -- proved otherwise.
"I make a deep apology to the people of Indonesia today for the systematic and widespread extreme violence by the Dutch side in those years and the consistent looking away by previous cabinets," Rutte said, according to The Guardian. "The prevailing culture was one of looking away, shirking and a misplaced colonial sense of superiority. That is a painful realization, even after so many years."
The Indonesian war of independence was spurred just two days after Japan surrendered in World War II on Aug. 16, 1945. Revolutionaries Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared independence from the Dutch's 350-year rule over Indonesia -- a move contested by The Hague.
Between then and Dec. 27, 1949, approximately 100,000 Indonesians were killed compared to 5,300 Dutch militia.
The report shows that the army was frequently guilty of torture, detention under inhumane circumstances, arson of houses and villages, and arbitrary mass arrests and internments.
The research was conducted by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, the Netherlands Institute of Military History and the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, and will be published in 14 books.
Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the systematic and widespread violence exercised by the Netherlands during the 1945-49 Indonesian war of independence.
An inquiry revealed that the Netherlands' military and intelligence services were sanctioned by the highest levels of government to carry out executions and torture in Indonesia.
Since 1969, the Netherlands has held that there were only isolated cases of excess violence and that the armed forces behaved correctly.
The report -- the result of a four-and-a-half-year research project funded by the government -- proved otherwise.
"I make a deep apology to the people of Indonesia today for the systematic and widespread extreme violence by the Dutch side in those years and the consistent looking away by previous cabinets," Rutte said, according to The Guardian. "The prevailing culture was one of looking away, shirking and a misplaced colonial sense of superiority. That is a painful realization, even after so many years."
The Indonesian war of independence was spurred just two days after Japan surrendered in World War II on Aug. 16, 1945. Revolutionaries Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared independence from the Dutch's 350-year rule over Indonesia -- a move contested by The Hague.
Between then and Dec. 27, 1949, approximately 100,000 Indonesians were killed compared to 5,300 Dutch militia.
The report shows that the army was frequently guilty of torture, detention under inhumane circumstances, arson of houses and villages, and arbitrary mass arrests and internments.
The research was conducted by the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, the Netherlands Institute of Military History and the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, and will be published in 14 books.
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