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While the Netherlands is still struggling with the question of how serious and widespread the violence was in the Indonesian War of Independence, that history can be found everywhere in Indonesia. Monuments and burial grounds are the silent witnesses of the battle and the stories of the war are still circulating. Remco Raben and Peter Romijn argue in this book that the way the Netherlands has long viewed the war in Indonesia has its origins in the language and the manipulation of information during that war. They investigate the mentality of administration and politics in Indonesia and the Netherlands and trace the path that knowledge about violence has taken, from the villages and fields in Indonesia to the desks of administrators, politicians and journalists in the Netherlands. This book shows how the cover-up of violence in Indonesia worked. It explains why war crimes and other large-scale violence against the Indonesian population were tolerated, how the army was able to dominate the provision of information about the war, how administrative mechanisms and mentalities promoted the concealment, how Dutch politicians looked away, and how Indonesian voices were systematically were ignored.

In the Indonesian war of independence, which had a strong guerrilla war character, intelligence was decisive for achieving military successes. No wonder that the Netherlands and the Republic of Indonesia waged a fierce intelligence battle between 1945 and 1949. Nevertheless, not much is known about the personnel, organization and working methods of the Dutch military intelligence services, which were to function as the eyes and ears of the army. This study examines this violent confrontation for intelligence in detail. To what extent have the Dutch services used torture and other forms of extreme violence? And why? How accurate was the intelligence they gathered about the Indonesian forces? What effects did their reports have on Dutch actions in the field – and on the decision-making of higher echelons? The tug-of-war over the crucial cooperation of the population and the extremely violent or otherwise violent actions of the Indonesian intelligence services are also discussed. The course of the espionage war is explained based on the interactions between the Dutch and Indonesian services, which continuously tried to outsmart each other. This book shows that this grim and complex struggle behind the scenes had a major – and so far underexposed – impact on the Dutch-Indonesian war.

De Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog is in Nederland lange tijd aangeduid met versluierende termen als 'politionele acties'. In werkelijkheid was het een ware oorlog waarin Nederlandse troepen met moderne wapens de strijd aangingen. De inzet van artillerie, bommenwerpers en scheepsgeschut werd niet geschuwd in het streven de gewapende 'opstand' de kop in te drukken. Wat waren de gevolgen van bombardementen en beschietingen met dergelijk grof geschut? In welke gevallen werden deze middelen ingezet en in hoeverre werd gepoogd burgerslachtoffers te voorkomen?

Voor het eerst is op systematische wijze de toepassing van vooral artillerie en luchtstrijdkrachten in de onafhankelijkheidsstrijd onderzocht. Grof geschut biedt zowel statistische overzichten als analyses van gevechten waarbij op grote schaal zware wapens zijn ingezet. Daarbij komt ook de vraag aan de orde hoe de inzet van deze middelen zich verhield tot het geweldsgebruik in het algemeen. Deze studie vormt een onmisbare bijdrage aan onze kennis over de aard en omvang van extreem geweldgebruik door de Nederlandse krijgsmacht in de Indonesische onafhankelijkheidsoorlog.

Armed conflict; National liberation & independence, post-colonialism; Military history: post WW2 conflicts