Dutch colonialism under fire, again

 During the last 15 years again and again aspects of Dutch colonialism have been put forward, often to criticize this long history. In December 2008 ten widows of men who were shot in the village of Rawagede without any process on 9 December 1947 started a court case against the Dutch State in The Hague. On 9 December 2011 they received € 20.000 each. In 2018 another case was started against the Dutch State in favour of men whose fathers were killed in February 1947 in a very strange way. As part of punishing anti-Dutch villages, besides setting houses in fire and shooting people running away, the Dutch held boxing contests between two men: the one who lost was shot, while the winner was saved. There was no reason for this arbitrary killing, under order of one Captain Rijborz of KNIL, the colonial army. On 7 May 2021 the court decided that two sons of victims of these killings will receive € 5.000: one Santa, son of Jabu from Lisu and Alwi Ros, son of La Miru from Amparita. There is much criticism now in the press about the slow process and the low amount given for a war crime so many years ago. By contrast I include here a picture of a calm group of KNIL soldiers, and the modern Puskesmas of Amparita.

The debate continues: from the genocide in Banda under Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen, to many war crimes in the period 1946-1949. Also in the recent biography of Muslim scholar Snouck Hurgronje, much details about his involvement in cruelties in the conquest of Aceh were given. The latest field of interest is slavery. Although most facts are given about the Dutch involvement in the slave trade between West Africa/Ghana and Central America, more and more is written now about the Dutch participation in the slave trade between Asian regions. The city of Amsterdam has ordered research and a book is published on the subject on De slavernij in oost en west where Wim Manuhutu wrote about the slaves introduced by the VOC to replace the Bandanese killed under the command of Coen. He also called for a more systematic research of the history of slavery. Also the American series of demonstrations for Black Lives Matter, has supported this interest in the dark side of Dutch colonial history.