Indonesia welcomes Dutch's apology on World War II atrocities

Indonesia welcomed official an apology statement conveyed by the Netherlands over atrocities committed by its troops from 1945 to 1949 that had killed thousands of civilians in several areas in Indonesia, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said here on Thursday. "Related to the (Dutch) apology and its intention to provide compensations to widows of the slain victims, the Indonesian government welcomes it positively," he said. The minister expected that the apology would reopen process on similar cases that occurred in Indonesia so as to ensure that the good relations between the two countries would remain undisrupted by things that happened in the past. "The past problems should immediately be handled accordingly," he added. The statement was in response to Netherlands' official apology to widows of the slain victims conveyed earlier in the day by Dutch ambassador to Indonesia Tjeerd de Zwan in the Netherlands embassy. Besides conveying the apology, the Netherlands also pledged to provide 301 million rupiah (or 20,000 euro) for each widow of the slain victim. At least 4,000 civilians were executed by Dutch's army special unit of Depot Speciale Troepen led by Raymond Pierre Paul Westerling from 1945 to 1949 through "counter insurgency" military operation in South Sulawesi and West Java provinces. The operation was part of the Netherlands efforts to reoccupy Indonesia's territory after it fled there during Japanese colonial rule from 1942 to 1945. The Netherlands had occupied Indonesia for centuries before the arrival of the Japanese in 1942. Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945 shortly after Japan surrendered unconditionally to allied forces following deadly bombings on its two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. forces.