According to current definitions, the extreme violence committed by Dutch soldiers in Indonesia between 1945 and 1949 could be classified as war crimes, the government acknowledged in a letter to the House of Representatives last Wednesday. Yet, legally speaking, that would not be the case because those atrocities were committed before the Geneva Conventions came into force in 1949.
In February of this year, Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the “extreme violence” during the independence struggle of the then colony of the Dutch East Indies. Critics thought that it should have been called war crimes.
“From a legal point of view” that is not possible, the prime minister writes also on behalf of the ministers Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs), Kajsa Ollongren (Defence) and Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security) and State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Health, Welfare and Sport). “Nevertheless, the cabinet finds that some forms of extreme violence used in the period 1945-1949, such as torture and extrajudicial killings, when committed today, would qualify as war crimes.”
The fact that, according to the government, the term “war crime” still cannot be used directly for the violence that Dutch soldiers have used, “does not detract from the seriousness of the conclusions of the investigation and the attention that the government pays to the suffering that victims and their bereaved still feel”. He emphasizes “the killing of prisoners, torture and the destruction of kampongs (settlement ed.) without military necessity”.
The Federation of Dutch East Indies (FIN) regrets that the cabinet is still saying nothing about what was done to the Dutch and Dutch soldiers in the former Dutch East Indies. According to the FIN, Indonesian freedom fighters committed war crimes on an even larger scale. “The Dutch population, especially women and children, had to be protected. War is war, although of course we do not condone crimes. But what the natives did is never looked at. There should also be excuses from that side.”
The government has always emphasized that not all Dutch soldiers have committed extreme violence. Rutte also apologized “to all veterans who behaved as good soldiers at the time”. The issue is still very sensitive for all concerned.