Families seek to clear names of men who refused to fight for former Dutch colony

Families of 20 men who were jailed for refusing to fight to preserve the former Dutch colony in Indonesia have formally asked for their names to be cleared, arguing that instead of “deserters, traitors and cowards” their relatives deserve to be recognised as having been on the right side of history.

An official investigation into the period when Dutch colonies asserted their independence after the second world war found a failed military campaign in Indonesia had systematically used “excessive violence” and massacred hundreds of innocent villagers, whose families eventually won compensation.

The former prime minister Mark Rutte apologised in 2022, and his government agreed that if conscientious objectors who were punished for their refusal to do military service definitely knew about the extreme violence, their reputations could be restored.

Now the relatives of 20 men known as Indonesië-weigeraars (“Indonesia-refusers”) have called on the current rightwing government to clear their fathers’ names. “We want the verdicts cancelled because our fathers are still registered as deserters, traitors and cowards,” said Nel Bak, 68, from Middenbeemster.

She and her 95-year-old mother have asked for a pardon for her father, Jan de Wit, who was imprisoned for three years alongside Dutch second world war fascists. “My father came from a communist background and respected the call for [Indonesian] independence. He thought we’d no business there,” Bak said.

The Dutch government conscripted 120,000 men to “defeat the Republic of Indonesia – which had declared independence on 17 August 1945 – at any cost”, according to the official investigation. “The Netherlands fought a hopeless war that became increasingly violent … The Dutch armed forces used extreme violence on a frequent and structural basis …in close consultation with and under the responsibility of the Dutch government.”

Eelco van der Waals, 68, from The Hague, received an apology for the “harsh” imprisonment of his pacifist father, Koos van der Waals, from the former defence minister Kajsa Ollongren in June. But he said full rehabilitation would bring important historical lessons.

“After the Japanese had been defeated in east Asia, the Americans and the British took over command,” he said. “But especially Dutch companies could not accept the loss of their interests. The Dutch government chose the wrong side … That is why it is so important to choose rehabilitation more than only [apologies].”

Peter Hartog, 70, from Rotterdam, said he also wanted rehabilitation for his father, Rienus Hartog, who realised he could not bring himself to kill when ordered to stab a straw man during training.

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“My father always stood up for his choices, and he deserves his place in history,” Hartog said.

Jurjen Pen, a lawyer campaigning on behalf of the conscientious objectors, said it was unfair to ask relatives to prove the men had known about excessive violence, given the limited communication and decades of official denial. “All of the sentences should be wiped,” he said. “They did this in Germany [for people who refused to fight for the Nazis].”

Pen said there were three forms of rehabilitation under Dutch law: an apology for a person’s improper treatment, the restoration of their good name, and a complete pardon that erases the entire verdict. He argued that the latter was most suitable for the Indonesië-weigeraars.

“The Netherlands has a lot to be ashamed of, in retrospect, and that’s why no amnesty comes,” he said. “It is a step that says we were completely wrong ... and, actually, we were.”

But Klaas Meijer, a spokesperson for the Dutch ministry of defence, said such a move could have an impact on the Netherlands’ ability to withstand 21st century threats.

“The [last] cabinet said [the men] can only be rehabilitated if it can be shown that they knew about the extreme violence … with a reason. We still have national service, although the obligation to turn up has been suspended. If the threat from Russia became so big that war broke out … you pull the rug out from under national service.”