On Dutch cemeteries

This is in regards to the article in The Jakarta Post on March 4, 2000, titled Peace reigns in old Dutch cemeteries by Ida Indawati Khouw. I would like to say that peace does not reign in the old Dutch cemeteries only, but in all of the cemeteries of Jakarta and the whole of Indonesia as well, for I am very sure that the dead buried in these cemeteries are not capable of doing anything unpeaceful.

In my opinion, the writer of the article got carried away with the arrogance of the Dutch, in particular the director of the Netherlands War Graves Foundation. The Dutch as of now still do not recognize the date of Aug. 17, 1945, as Indonesia's Independence Day, shown by a statement in the article: "the cemetery was inaugurated by Lt. Gen. S.H. Spoor, the then commander general of the Dutch East Indies, on Dec. 8, 1947." To my knowledge of Indonesian history, after 1942 the Dutch East Indies no longer existed, as the Dutch had surrendered and capitulated to Japan days after the Japanese invasion, and the Dutch East Indies government fled to Australia and set up the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA).

In 1946, right after the end of World War II, the NICA was helped by more than 150,000 Dutch soldiers sent to Indonesia from the Netherlands by the Dutch government to try to restore Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, which had proclaimed its independence on Aug. 17, 1945. War soon broke out between the Dutch and Indonesia, which was defending its freedom. Many of these Dutch soldiers (estimated at around 6,000) died during this war, called the War of Independence.

Indonesians again suffered because of this war, and it is estimated that more than 100,000 Indonesians perished during the fighting. No doubt the Dutch soldiers who died during the war with Indonesia between 1946 and 1949 were buried in the Menteng Pulo and Ancol Dutch cemeteries. Thus, these cemeteries contain not only those who died before and during World War II, but also Dutch soldiers who died fighting against the Indonesians after World War II as well. The writer referred to the Japanese as "colonial" troops. What do you then call the Dutch troops? Bandits, probably!

The Dutch not only colonized and ruled Indonesia for hundred of years, but the troops they sent from the Netherlands in 1946 were involved in atrocities in Indonesia. Many Indonesian civilians and prisoners of war died because of the brutality of the Dutch soldiers between 1946 and 1949, not to mention the looting and burning of Indonesian villages by these Dutch soldiers seeking to restore Dutch colonialism. These criminal acts of the Dutch soldiers in Indonesia from 1946 to 1949 were reported in the late 1960s by Dutch veterans who served in Indonesia during that time. For years the Dutch government has been trying to cover up these atrocities committed by its soldiers in Indonesia, but to no avail. The reports have been compiled by Jan Blank in a 1995 book titled De excessennota (The Reported Excessess).

For human rights activists in Indonesia, certainly these reports are very interesting for the sake of justice from the Dutch government. After all, human rights do not have an "expiration date" and justice does not recognize "color".

Probably in the future, most Indonesians would appreciate it if the writer of the article and the Post also considered the Indonesian side of Dutch colonial history in Indonesia, and not just the Dutch side.

CHICHI MARTI

Bekasi, West Java