Colonial counterinsurgency and mass violence: the Dutch empire in Indonesia

Abstract

Whether out of historical interest, romantic identification with the colonized or as models for contemporary counter-insurgency experts, the mass violence of insurgency and counter-insurgency in the post-war decolonization of the European empires has long exerted an intense fascination. In the main, the dramas in French Algeria and British Kenya in the 1950s have dominated the scene, overshadowing the equally violent events that unfolded in the Dutch, Belgian and Portuguese empires. Colonial counterinsurgency and mass violence is the first book in English to treat the intense conflict that occurred during the decolonization struggle of the Dutch East Indies between 1945 and 1949. This case is particularly significant as the first episode of post-war colonial violence, indeed one with global reverberations. International opinion was ranged against the Dutch, and the nascent United Nations condemned its euphemistically termed 'politionele acties' to reclaim the archipelago from Indonesian nationalists after defeat by the Japanese in 1942. As this book makes clear, however, intra-Indonesian violence was no less prevalent, as rival independence visions vied for control and villagers were caught between the fronts. Taking a multi-perspectival approach, eighteen authors examine the origins of the conflict as well as its representational and memory dimensions.

Contents

15.Competitive or multidirectional memory? The interaction between postwar and postcolonial memory in the Netherlands / Iris Van Ooijen and Ilse Raaijmakers -- 16. Epilogue: on genocide and mass violence in colonial Indonesia / Remco Raben. 8. Anti-Chinese violence in Java during the Indonesian Revolution, 1945--49 / Mary Somers Heidhues -- 9. Walking the tightrope: internal Indonesian conflict, 1945--49 / Harry A. Poeze -- pt. III Representations and memories -- 10.`Not a colonial war': Dutch film propaganda in the fight against Indonesia, 1945--49 / Gerda Jansen Hendriks -- 11.`Trust me, this news is indeed true': representations of violence in Indonesian newspapers during the Indonesian revolution, 1945--48 / Muhammad Yuanda Zara -- 12. Cleo's `unfinished business': coming to terms with Dutch war crimes in Indonesia's war of independence / Stef Scagliola -- 13. Colonial memory and forgetting in the Netherlands and Indonesia / Paul Bijl -- 14. From national sacrifice to compensation claims: changing Indonesian representations of the Westerling massacres in South Sulawesi, 1946--47 / Katharine McGregor. 1. Introduction: colonial counterinsurgency and mass violence: the Dutch empire in Indonesia / Bart Luttikhuis and A. Dirk Moses -- pt. I Conquest and reconquest -- 2. Colonial warfare and military ethics in the Netherlands East Indies, 1816-1941 / Petra Groen -- 3. Genocide in the Kampongs? Dutch nineteenth century colonial warfare in Aceh, Sumatra / Emmanuel Kreike -- 4. Business as usual: Dutch mass violence in the Indonesian war of independence 1945--49 / Rémy Limpach -- 5. Learning on `the job': Dutch war volunteers entering the Indonesian war of independence, 1945--46 / Peter Romijn -- 6.`Who wants to cover everything, covers nothing': the organization of indigenous security forces in Indonesia, 1945--50 / Roel Frakking -- pt. II Indonesian violence -- 7. The killing of Dutch and Eurasians in Indonesia's national revolution (1945--49): a `brief genocide' reconsidered / William H. Frederick.