The researchers, subsidized by the government, indicated that the focus was not on individual misconduct. “We’re not talking about the entire group either,” said one of them. “We do not write anywhere that there is collective guilt.”
In fact, the researchers state that they are ‘indebted’ to many veterans. “By being allowed to use their letters, memoirs, through interviews we have had with them. They were an important resource.”
‘Moral limits crossed’
The researchers emphasized that ‘moral and legal boundaries’ have nevertheless been crossed. “Extreme force has been used outside regular combat situations, without military necessity.” They spoke of torture, executions, rape, looting and inhumane detention, among other things.
The researchers indicated that they understood the criticism from the veterans’ angle. “There will be people who don’t recognize themselves in the image, or even deny it. That is characteristic of war,” said research leader Gert Oostindie. The term ‘shine of heroism’ was also included.
Nevertheless, many veterans are angry and dismayed by the ‘hard and one-sided’ report. Chairman Ruud Vermeulen of the veterans’ associations of the Royal Netherlands Army and the Joint Consultation Regiments and Corps believes that the researchers’ conclusion was already predetermined. He doubts the scientific solidity and believes that other opinions have been deliberately ignored.
“Dark clouds have hung over our past for years, specifically regarding our colonization period and the use of excessive force,” he says. The veterans do not want to avoid that discussion, says Vermeulen. “On the contrary, correct, but on the basis of widely supported research. In the fight against irregular combat groups that robbed, looted and terrorized the population through Indonesia, an unforeseen dynamic of violence arose, which was certainly not always proportional.” outlined.
The Dutch East Indies Federation states that the researchers have ‘magnified’ the Dutch violence. Chairman Hans Moll even pleads for an independent investigation into Indonesian violence.
Researcher Gert Oostindie in the Trippenhuis of the KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences) in Amsterdam fully acknowledged that considerable violence was also committed on the Indonesian side. ,,Without a doubt. But we will deal with that in a sub-project.”
The results are therefore incomplete and create an incorrect picture of the decolonization period, Moll believes.
‘Few nuanced conclusions’
The Netherlands Veterans Institute believes that the soldiers are collectively placed in the suspect’s bench because of ‘little nuanced conclusions’, says director Paul Hoefsloot. He wants to organize meetings to support the approximately 4000 living Indian veterans.
Military historian Martin Elands, head of the Institute’s Expertise Center, acknowledges that ‘unfortunately, the application of extreme violence across the board can no longer be called incidental’. However, this is mainly due to a small minority, he believes. According to him, it is good that the research underlines that the violence was also allowed from above. “For the first time, the stairs are swept clean from above.”
Indeed, it is mainly the government at the time that is being dealt with in the report. “The position that the armed forces behaved correctly is no longer tenable. Politicians have tolerated, promoted, concealed and hardly punished the violence. There is a lot of effort to distance yourself from the rosy, nationalistic self-image that stated: we are not doing this.”