Indonesian critics ask: what use is Dutch recognition of 1945 independence without reparations? msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was sued by Indonesians for using the racist term bersiap in a recent exhibition. It is through court cases that Indonesian rights activists have changed the debate over the Dutch colonial past and exposed colonial crimes. And it is in court again that lasting colonial ideas are being fought, tells scholar Marjolein van Pagee, despite last Thursday January 5 decision of the Amsterdam’s Court of Appeal that “the term bersiap does not automatically contain negative conclusions about Indonesians”.
Last week researchers in the Netherlands and Indonesia finally laid out the ways in which the Dutch state both condoned and concealed its systematic use of “extreme violence” during the Indonesian war of independence. In response, the Dutch prime minister apologised. But the findings focus on laying out the facts and skirt any issues of criminal responsibility.