Historical comparisons can enhance our understanding of colonial wars. They also enable us to make better sense of the forms of extreme violence that the Dutch, British, French and other troops used during the post-war wave of decolonization. Thorough comparative research into excessive violence in wars – such as those in Vietnam, Algeria, Malaysia and Kenya – has seldom been conducted, however, and thus far the case of Indonesia has rarely been involved in such research. For this reason, a team of international and Dutch researchers was assembled at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (nias) in the spring of 2019 with the aim of filling this gap. The researchers worked on targeted comparisons dealing with themes such as the political handling of scandals surrounding extreme violence, the use of heavy weapons, sexual violence and the microdynamics of violence, and as project leaders we looked at the broader comparative context. In this chapter we discuss the main findings of that research.
Beyond the Pale
Beyond colonial guilt ranking : Dutch Extreme Violence in the Indonesian War of Independence, 1945-1949
