Cleo's ‘unfinished business’: coming to terms with Dutch war crimes in Indonesia's war of independence

摘要

This article discusses how Dutch society has come to terms with war crimes committed by its armed forces during the Indonesian/Dutch decolonization war (1945-49). In general, these ‘excesses’ have been legitimated by the community of veterans as the inevitable answer to provocative guerrilla tactics of the Indonesian adversary, who ‘forced’ Dutch troops to respond with harsh counter-insurgency measures. Although considerable evidence exists indicating that these measures led to violations of the laws of war, only a small percentage of these crimes were prosecuted at the time. Public references to them were rare until 1969, when the first disclosure on Dutch war crimes was broadcasted on television. From the late 1960s onwards, such charges would occasionally resurface in the media, causing brief upheaval in the veterans' community and the press. However, this did not bring about any major historical inquiry or legal repercussion on the Indonesian side. Only in 2011 did a group of Indonesian widows of executed resistance fighters file a lawsuit against the Dutch state. The present contribution describes and analyses how Dutch war veterans, media, historians and politicians have shaped the slow process of coming to terms with controversial aspects of the 1945-49 war. It offers a number of explanations that are related both to Dutch political culture and to the nature of the struggle.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2012.719374