New photos of Dutch war crimes in Indonesia discovered

Six Indonesians, killed, lying in a ditch

New pictures surfaced of atrocities in the Dutch East Indies

16 October 2015, 18:28

In an armored safe of the resistance museum in South Holland in Gouda 179 photographs and slides have surfaced from the time of the so-called police actions in the former Dutch East Indies. The discovery has caused again calls for a thorough investigation into this period in Dutch history.

Among the materials are images of executed Indonesians, interrogations and arrests by Dutch colonial army soldiers and the arrival of Dutch army soldiers. The photos were discovered by Joost Lamboo, the man responsible for the images in the collection of the museum.

According to Lamboo the photos taken by one or more individuals who were on the side of the Dutch military. …

[Photo historian] Zweers believes that the photograph of the six men shot was made in Bandung, in the spring of 1946. …

There were no police actions yet then, Zweers says. “There were no Dutch army soldiers present. They came much later. This was the colonial army, with Dutch officers living in Indonesia and indigenous troops, under Dutch command. From the early days of the independence struggle very much is unclear.”

Research

Henk Schulte Nordholt, professor of Indonesian history at Leiden University, confirms this. “We still have no insight into the true nature of that war, while it is the biggest war the Netherlands has ever had.”

According to the professor people have mostly looked away until now. … “We have to take our responsibility and finally make a major investigation into who did what when, and especially why. This was very much a dirty war. We need to understand why that could happen.”