JAKARTA, THENUSANTARAPOST.COM- The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, apologized to the Indonesian people for the structured atrocities committed by the Dutch troops and the Dutch government that covered them during the 1945-1950 war.
This apology comes after research uncovered the violence perpetrated by the Dutch during the colonial period in Indonesia.
“Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I extend my deepest apologies to the Indonesian people for the systematic and extreme violence on the part of the Dutch in those years,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at a press conference. research results, a few hours earlier.
Rutte said he was also sorry the Dutch government had previously turned a blind eye to the matter.
“We also apologize to everyone living in the Netherlands who had to live with the consequences of the colonial war in Indonesia, including well-behaved war veterans,” said Rutte.
In a four-year study conducted by the Netherlands and Indonesia, Dutch researchers burned villages, carried out mass detentions, interrogated, and executed people in 1945-1949.
This extreme violence was carried out with the tacit support of the government. In this study, the researcher stated that the Dutch, starting from politicians, officials, civil servants, and so on, knew about the systematic and systematic violence of judges.
“There is a will to support and hide it, and leave it unpunished. All of this happened with a higher purpose: winning the war,” the researcher said.
Researchers reveal it covers the whole, killings, burning villages, executions, and killings of civilians. This violence occurred when the Dutch wanted to defend their former colony after Indonesia declared its independence in 1945. The Dutch withdrew in 1949.
This is not the first Dutch apology to Indonesia, Dutch King Willem-Alexander has formally apologized during a visit to Indonesia in 2020 for “excessive violence” during his previous coercion.
However, PM Rutte’s apology this time is the Netherlands’ first acknowledgment that there was brutal violence carried out effectively during the war.
Rutte also apologized to the wider community in the Netherlands who were directly or indirectly victims of this policy error by the government and the armed forces.
Indos, Moluccans, Chinese Indonesians, veterans who were sent to the wrong battlefield, conscripts who (imprisoned for) refused to go to Indonesia and others (Wan)
