Prime Minister Rob Jetten of the Netherlands has apologized for the mistreatment of thousands of Moluccan soldiers who fought for the Dutch colonial army during Indonesia’s war of independence.
Mr. Jetten’s apology, issued Sunday on behalf of the Dutch government, was directed primarily at the first generation of Moluccans — 12,500 people, including 4,000 soldiers and their families — who were brought to the Netherlands in 1951 without choice.
“It’s not just high time, but it’s also necessary if we want to move forward together,” Mr. Jetten said at the unveiling of a national Moluccan memorial in Rotterdam. “Because apologies only retain their meaning from the actions that follow them.”
The Moluccan community are descendants of families that came from the Maluku Islands in what is now Indonesia. During Indonesia’s war of independence from 1945 to 1949, Moluccan soldiers — hoping for an independent nation of their own — fought on the side of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army.
After the Netherlands recognized Indonesia’s independence in 1949, the Indonesian government did not permit the Moluccan soldiers to return to the Maluku Islands. The Moluccans did not want to remain in Indonesia. The Dutch government ordered them to the Netherlands for what was intended to be a temporary solution.
Many of the soldiers and their families hoped to return to their homeland and see the creation of an independent Maluku Republic. Those hopes never materialized.
After their arrival in the Netherlands, the Dutch government fired the Moluccan soldiers from the military “and they fell through the cracks,” according to the Moluccan memorial’s website.
On Sunday, Mr. Jetten apologized for the “heartless and dishonorable dismissal” of the soldiers, the substandard accommodations in which they had to live and the “unfulfilled desire to go home and the sadness and pain in so many Moluccan families.”
Among the places where Moluccans were housed was Westerbork, a transit camp from which the Nazis deported more than 100,000 Jews, as well as Sinti and Roma peoples, to extermination camps from 1942 to 1944.
As of 2018, there were more than 70,000 Moluccans in the Netherlands, according to the official Statistics Netherlands agency. While some of the first Moluccans there did not live to hear Mr. Jetten’s apology, the prime minister’s words were significant, said Wim Manuhutu, a historian and author who specializes in Moluccan history.
“Before you can look forward to the future, you have to take certain steps to acknowledge the past,” Mr. Manuhutu said in a phone interview. He said that he hoped the apology would help bring more attention to Moluccan history in the Netherlands and in Dutch schools.
The timing of the apology, he added, was symbolic: June 21, 1951, was the day when the last of 12 ships carrying that first generation of Moluccans arrived in Rotterdam.
The Maluku Islands are an eastern Indonesian archipelago between Sulawesi and Papua, historically known for producing nutmeg, mace and cloves. In the 17th century, the Netherlands, then a major colonial power, controlled the Moluccan islands in an effort to dominate the global spice trade.
The Rev. Jacklevyn Manuputty, an Indonesian activist, said that he appreciated the apology but that it was not sufficient to address the wrongs done to the Moluccans.
“This apology acknowledges the historical injustices experienced by the Moluccan people in the Netherlands,” he said. “This acknowledgment must be accompanied by compensation from the Dutch government for their unfulfilled rights, including their pension rights and the financial compensation they deserve.”
Over the last few years, the Netherlands has begun to engage in what Mr. Manuhutu called a “colonial reckoning” over past injustices.
In 2022, Mark Rutte, a former prime minister, apologized to the people of Indonesia for “extreme violence” by the Dutch army during Indonesia’s fight for independence. Later that year, he formally apologized on behalf of the government for the country’s role in centuries of slave trading.
In 2023, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands followed suit, formally apologizing for country’s role in the slave trade.
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