[Spoiler alert: this post is a rant, and is somewhat lengthy. Nor will I claim that it is entirely rational - some pettiness may have crept in.]
No?
WWII
Quick refresher: Collectively the above mentioned were responsible for enabling the Germans to efficiently and expeditiously exterminate eighty percent of Dutch Jewry. After the war all the above pointed fingers at the Germans, denied any and all intimate knowledge of the details of what had happened or how, and conspired to obfuscate their role in the events. The banks, in particular, profited from the German organized despoliation of Dutch Jews - after the war, much that had been confiscated was never returned, and the state made itself the official owner of whatever it had not the energy to find heirs to.
[Key search criteria for a representative overview: Pieter Menten (Dutch war criminal protected by his contacts in the post-war establishment); Jacques Goudstikker (whose art collection was finally given to his heirs after more than six decades of Dutch government denials and obduracy); Maror gelden (bitter money - the paltry recompense offered to the survivors after much sniping and pettiness by the Dutch government); NSB (National-Socialistische Beweging - the Dutch Nazis, many of whom occupied prominent places before the war, some of whom occupied prominent places after the war); Dutch SS (the various volunteer legions raised in the Netherlands to fight alongside the Germans on the Eastern Front).]
Anyhow, now that that is out of the way, how about some Dutch East-Indies history?
Just a sampler - there is far too much to illuminate everything.
BANDA: 1621
Let's start with the extermination of the native population of Banda. The Dutch, under their great military commander Jan Pieterszoon Coen (later made governor of the East Indies) were determined to enforce their trade monopoly in mace, nutmeg, and cloves, and decided that as the natives of Banda did not agree with them on this issue, it would be profitable to exterminate them utterly. They were right; it was profitable. Over fifteen thousand people were slaughtered.
DJALAN RAYA POS: 1808
The Great Post Road (Groote Postweg) across Java was a military road which was constructed by order of governor Daendels in 1808. Native rulers along the route of the road were commanded to provide workers from the local populations - if their portion of the road was not completed on schedule, the rulers and their workers were killed and their heads displayed along portions yet being built. Thousands died because of the harsh conditions, thousands more perished because of hardships created by the mobilization of so large a proportion of the population. Certainly Daendels qualifies as a tyrant and a criminal. He is lauded as one of the Netherlands greatest men.
COMPULSORY PLANTING: 1830 to 1870
The Kultuurstelsel (Culture System / Cultivation System) forced millions of natives into poverty and starvation with its exactations - food crops took a backseat to required cash crop planting, harvests going to the government. It was extremely profitable - mansions in Amsterdam are still occupied by the heirs of men who benefited by that tyranny.
Along with enforced trade monopolies it enriched Holland while gutting the victims of empire. A splendid achievement.
THE ATJEH WAR: 1873 to 1910
For over a generation, the Dutch colonial army engaged in savage repression of a former ally and friend. Initially the aim was to assert control and so keep the other powers (particularly the Americans) from involving themselves in one of the last independent territories of the archipelago, but after the ignoble defeat of the first expeditionary force the Dutch ramped up their efforts. In a scorched-earth campaign they leveled villages, destroyed crops, imprisoned native leaders, and massacred thousands. The war was so savage that returning soldiers carried the sobriquets 'kaki mera' (red feet, from wading in blood) or 'tangan mera' (red arms, from being in gore up to their elbows).
The Dutch colonial army at that time, in addition to professional soldiers and Moluccan mercenaries, included the dregs of Europe - murderers, thieves, brigands, and rapists - who sought safety and anonymity by enlisting for Holland and leaving Europe.
The list of heroes on the Atjenese side is endless, that of the Dutch, short. This war was not marked by gallantry.
BALI: 1906, 1908
The royal courts of Sanur and Kelungkung, realizing that they stood no chance against the superior might of the Dutch, deliberately marched out against the invading army and met their end. Thousands perished rather than surrender - princes, nobles, commoners; men, women, children. These events are known as the Puputan of Badung (1906) and the Puputan of Klungkung (1908) respectively.
[A puputan is a defiant and suicidal final battle. It is the last resort of those facing certain defeat.]
TURK WESTERLING: 1946 to 1950
Let's also mention Raymond (Turk) Westerling. This gentleman, in the employ of the KNIL (Koninklijke Nederlands-Indisch Leger - the Royal Dutch East-Indies Army), commanded special forces in Sulawesi (Celebes), and engaged in a relentless reign of terror against the Nationalists and native villages sympathetic to their cause. Tactics employed by Turk and his men were later echoed much more modestly by Americans in Vietnam - what happened in MyLai had already happened several times over in Sulawesi. After 1949 he went awol, and attempted to overthrow the republican government of Indonesia. Despite his blood-drenched past, he was welcomed back to the Netherland where many considered him a hero. He died peacefully in 1987, having never stood trial for his crimes.
POLICE ACTIONS IN JAVA: 1947 & 1949
And further, consider the first and second Politionele Acties (Police Actions) in Java during the Indonesian war of independence - what the Americans later did to the Northern Vietnamese with airplanes and napalm, the Dutch Marines managed to do entirely by hand. They were just as effective - the enemy was steeled in its resolve and despite horrendous losses continued the struggle.
What is truly remarkable is that if the Dutch had resisted the Japanese with even only a fraction of the fury of their fight against the Nationalists, it is extremely likely that the Dutch East-Indies would never have fallen to Emperor Hirohito's forces.
Had enough?
How about just a little more, in brief:
South Africa - Cape Dutch (Boers/Afrikaners), Apartheid.
Ceylon - Brutal exploitation and mass bloodshed.
Brazil - Profitably exploiting the slave-society stolen from the Portuguese.
Suriname - A brutal colonial economy created on the backs and blood of hundreds of thousands.
The African Slave Coast - Major player, manifestly not a civilizing role.
Malabar - Extortion, bloodshed, and trade in spices.
Etc.
--- --- --- --- ---
SREBRENICA
Now, why am I highlighting all this?
Because it looks like those canny, mercantile, subtle Dutch are going to weasel out of admitting any responsibility for Srebrenica.
See this article (in Dutch) in the Algemeen Dagblad:
http://www.ad.nl/buitenland/2379724/Nabestaanden_vangen_bot.html
And this article (in English) on the BBC site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7461310.stm
Frankly, this is not surprising. The Dutch have a talent for denying responsibility, and often take delight in leaving someone else holding the bag. Having lived there for several years, I am more than familiar with their penchant for casting blame while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge fault.
Dutch law, furthermore, is the Napoleonic Code with modifications - a legal system which absolves the authorities and hampers acknowledgement of governmental culpability.
I am rather disgusted with this turn of events. But again, I am not particularly surprised - I lived there for sixteen years (1962 - 1978). While I personally like many Dutch, and would trust those that I like on an individual basis, as a group and institutionally I prefer to keep them at much more than arms length.
PERSONAL NOTE
There is a certain pleasure in exposing all this juicy dirt - my ancestors were effectively sold to the English when the Dutch West-Indies Company divested themselves of New Amsterdam in 1664. The history my family shares with other Netherlanders actually ends in 1635, when Isaac Abrahamsen van Deursen (my first New-World ancestor) was born in Kings County; my lineage is in no way implicated or complicit in subsequent Netherlands-Dutch events - we and the other New York Dutch were left to our own devices and solved our own problems (teaching natives how to scalp, manufacturing soupy ale and cheap gin, and putting up with Presbyterians, among other things).
We (all of us Americans) may indeed be co-guilty of all the sins of America, as my beloved classmates in Valkenswaard averred; we may also be horrid barbaric Yanks (see previously mentioned averring); and we may be co-responsible for ending WWII (atom bombs, also under the rubric of previously mentioned averring); and certainly too Vietnam was one of our country's errors (again, that averring biz)..........
But Srebrenica, boys, is all yours. You did something incredibly nasty there. You handed unarmed men, women, and children over to murderers. You stood by while the men and boys were marched off to be slaughtered. You 'observed' as women were gangraped, and children were violated or had their throats slit. You did all this, not us. Your officers ordered it, it was their authority that made it happen. Your men, in your country's uniforms, and representing your nation, saved their own hides by sacrificing those who were entrusted to your care.
You did it. You bear responsibility for Srebrenica.
You.
And now your legal system may miscarry justice in this matter.
Nice.
You 'Ollanders often claim to be the Acme of the enlightened First World, and represent the best of Western Civilization.
We wish that you wouldn't. You make us look no better than do the rest of that lot on the other side of the Atlantic, and if they know their history, they too may have some questions about the appropriateness of your claims.
Judging from your history, it might be best if the Netherlands-Dutch stayed out of the rest of the world for a while.
3 comments:
Your people were also in Gujarat. As were the Portugese also. I am sorry I do not know more.
---Grant Patel
Bee in bonnet much?
Erg impaktvol, is net niet.
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