Showing posts with label Ferencz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ferencz. Show all posts

Monday, October 23, 2017

Decolonization, 70 years after the cannonade of Candi

The cannonade of Candi-Karanganyar
Nederlandse samenvatting volgt hieronder.

On 19 October 2017, it was 70 years ago that the "Cannonade of Candi-Karanganyar" took place. The first time I read about it was when I found the website of Ravie Ananda in a search for "Keboemen" in September 2015.
On this website Ravie Ananda describes the history of the Mexolie-factory where  both our fathers had worked in the 1930's and the 1970's.  He also writes about the history of the war in Keboemen and about the cannonade on Candi-Karanganyar, that took place on October 19, 1947.


The website of Ravie Ananda, in which he describes the cannonade on 19 October 1947.

It appeared that the dutch journalist Max van der Werff (NCRV-TV) and the indonesian historian Ady Setyawan had visited Ravie Ananda already in 2013 and had reported about this cannonade, in which 786 people were killed, on the dutch television. I could not find any additional information about this incident. Also, in the thesis of Rémy Limpach, which I obtained in January 2016, the cannonade on Karanganyar was not mentioned (Post #29- okt. 2016). Helped by Dr. Bart Luttikhuis (KITLV), I started to retrieve information about the cannonade from the Dutch National Archive: it appeared that most details of Ravie Ananda's description were confirmed by dutch battle reports (Post #30, 17 December 2016 and Post #31, 2017).
After making a call in the veteran magazine "Checkpoint", I was contacted by Map de Lange, a veteran of the second "Police Action" of 1948. Together with Rémy Limpach and Azarja Harmanny, we watched at the NIMH the documentary "Tabee Toean"(1995) by Thom Verheul (see Post #31, 11 May 2017). The movie shows four dutch veterans visiting their locations of combat actions on Java. One of them, the artillerist Henry Pezy (3-6RVA), tells how they fired from a road at Gombong about 3000 granades with 12 cannons. "I am still curious about what has become of the people in Karanganyar", he remarks when visiting the market of Candi.


Visit to the veteran Map de Lange, who has an impressive documentation about the Dutch colonial war (May 1, 2017).

After studying the battle reports and other documents obtained from the National Archive, Map de Lange makes the observation that the Army Commander Spoor only became aware of the cannonade 10 days later. The question who ordered the bombardment will perhaps be answered by historians involved in the newly started research project on the decolonization war. However, as argued below, this study has a more important purpose!

"Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (public debate on a problematic period)
In his article ("Geschiedenis Magazine", nr. 4, June 2017), Rémy Limpach  is wondering how countries like France, England and Germany have coped with their colonial past. His examples include the French in Algeria (-1962) and the English in Kenya (Mau-mau, 1952-1960). The Germans seem to have successfully overcome the Holocaust and helped by the Allied Occupation Forces, they received the image of "Weltmeister der Vergangenheitsbewältigung". But unfortunately, their dealing with the 1904-genocide committed in Namibia is still under way.



Benjamin Ferencz: "If people are made into beasts" and "Governements must stand trial to explain their behavior for a judge". During his visit (19 May 2017) to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
  
But what about the Dutch in the period 1945-1950? Almost everything is known and documented. But the lost war has so far been hushed-up efficiently. The crimes described are shocking. But can they surprise us? According to Benjamin Ferencz, Neurenberg's former prosecutor, the war makes murderers of decent people. In an interview he talks about the brutes of the so-called "Einzatsgruppen" who killed about one million people behind the front in Eastern Europe:
Although each of those men have hundreds of deaths on their conscience, Ferencz does not believe that they were bad by nature. "It's a big mistake to think so. I wondered how a man like Otto Ohlendorf (Commander of one of the Einzatsgruppen), highly educated and father of five children, could have been able to do that. My conclusion is that war makes killers of otherwise decent people. These men were patriots who believed they served the interests of their country. "
Limpach notes that the negotiations between the Netherlands and the Indonesian Republic in the period 1945-1950 were in fact a farce. How was that possible? Did the government officials in the Netherlands and in the colony not have the least incentive to reach a political solution? Did these government officials just go for war?
The dutch journalist John Jansen van Galen does not agree with the above: according to him the dutch governement pursued a Union between Indonesia and the Netherlands on a voluntary and equal basis and never wanted to conserve its colony...... It seems to me that the historians should be able to describe the facts here. If Limpach's description is right the debt claim lies not only in the Dutch armed forces but also in its leadership, the public administrations, both in the colony and in the Hague.


Decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia, 1945-1950
On September 14, 2017 the kick-off for the program "Decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia" took place in Amsterdam. The three institutes, KITLV, NIOD and NIMH, will receive a financial support of 4 million euros for this research.


From the "stream" of the kick-off meeting on 14 September 2017: A sometimes uncomfortable conversation between Wouter Veraart, Rémy Limpach, Esther Captain and Marjolein van Pagee.

Critical questions were asked by Annelot Hoek and especially by Marjolein van Pagee (1). It seemed as if Marjolein van Pagee missed something in the framing of the research proposals. Was it the involvement or identification with the opponent, one of the most uncomfortable things to achieve? She pointed out that we are going to Indonesia, but we are not listening to the Indonesians. "Talk with them", she exclaimed


Azarja Harmanny went to Kebumen (August 2017) to talk with Ravie Ananda. Here they are standing in front of the monument at Candi. 

There is something behind the anger of Marjolein van Pagee. Is it the same anger as felt, for instance, by Afro-Suriname people in the Netherlands, when the government expressed her sincere regret about slavery and slave trade in the past? Such recognition is worthless if not supported by the white community. 

I think that Marjolein van Pagee tries to make us aware that this study about decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia should not only be about its historical facts. It should also tell the Dutch community about the Indonesian people who had suffered, although standing on the winning side. We know so much about the life of Dutch people in the colony, almost on a daily basis like in the case of my parents (e.g. see french Blog Posthume). But what do we know about the (grand)parents of, for instance, Ravie Ananda, who suffered not only the war, but had been living in an "apartheid" society, as emphasized by Prof. Wouter Veraart in the panel discussion during the kick-off meeting of September 14?

This study of the 1945-1950-war in Indonesia should give us additional facts but also help us to identify with the Indonesians. Only when a larger part of the Dutch community recognizes and accepts the historical injustices committed there, the governement will be able to perform a "policy of regret" (2). Only then will this investigation of the decolonization have proven its necessity and value.
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(1) Marjolein van Pagee, is freelance researcher and journalist. She founded Histori Bersama in September 2016. The activity of the foundation is to translate recent publications from Dutch and Indonesian media that refer to the colonial past and the Indonesian decolonization war (1945-1949).


(2) Ewout Tenhagen; scriptie onder begeleiding van dr. Remco Raben,  Universiteit Utrecht; "Duiding van een donker verleden", 10 juli 2017:
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Nederlandse samenvatting
In dit blog, geschreven 70 jaar na de "Cannonade op Candi", beschrijf ik hoe dit onderwerp is ontstaan. Daarna ga ik in op een artikel van Rémy Limpach, waarin hij voor diverse landen nagaat hoe zij hun dekolonisatie verwerkt hebben. Ik verwijs daarbij naar het bezoek (in mei 2017) van oud-Neurenberg-aanklager Benjamin Ferencz aan het Internationaal Strafhof (ICC) in Den Haag, Hij pleit ervoor dat uiteindelijk ook een regering voor begane wandaden terecht moet staan.
Tijdens de kick-off op 14 september jl. van het door de regering gesubsidieerde onderzoek naar de dekolonisatieoorlog 1945-1950, werd er ongemakkelijke kritiek geuit door o.a. Marjolein van Pagee. Bij haar en anderen is een boosheid te bespeuren die me doet denken aan de Zwarte-Piet discussie. Net zoals de spijtbetuiging van onze regering voor de slavernij geen waarde heeft als zij niet ook breed gedragen wordt door de blanke gemeenschap, zo ook is een spijtbetuiging voor het structurele geweld toegepast in Nederlands-Indië onvoldoende als de Nederlandse gemeenschap dit onrecht niet erkent. Pas als wij ons in Nederland beter kunnen vereenzelvigen met het lot van de Indonesiërs gedurende de periode 1945-1950, zal het dekolonisatie-onderzoek haar noodzaak en waarde bewezen hebben.