Jakarta, IO – The Dutch government has “fully and unconditionally” acknowledged Indonesia’s independence proclaimed on August 17, 1945 . The official statement was made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte after 78 years.
“The Netherlands acknowledges, fully and unconditionally, that Indonesia became independent on August 17, 1945,” Rutte said on the sidelines of the debate on Indonesia’s independence at the Dutch Parliament, per Historia, Thursday (15/6).
The statement opens a new chapter in the bilateral ties between the two nations bound by colonial past.
This follows de facto recognition stated by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Ben Bot’s in 2005. At that time, the Dutch still insisted that Indonesia gained its independence on December 27, 1949.
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Nevertheless, Rutte stopped short of acknowledging that the Dutch committed war crimes during its military invasion in 1945-1949, known locally as Dutch Military Aggression I and II. Rutte still insists on calling it extreme violence as per the 1949 Geneva Convention.
“I offer my deepest apologies to the Indonesian people for the systematic and extreme violence on the Dutch side during those years,” Rutte told a news conference in 2022. (un)