NIM

Past by from this war memorial in Roermond with the bust of General Spoor in front of the walls with 6229 names of soldiers who died in the Indonesian wars between 1940-1962.

Found some info in Wikipedia about general Spoor, whose name is given to many streets and lanes here in our land & translated it as Google translation writes down his name as track... and raises a big laugh of confusion ~ so my words about Spoor (I knew less about him then found here)

Simon Hendrik Spoor born in Amsterdam on January 12, 1902. He leaves for Indonesia where his career runs fast. As the Dutch East Indies are occupied in WW II by the Japanese, Spoor manages to escape as one of the last men to Australia. There he becomes CEO of the Nefis (Netherlands Forces Information Service), a service that should provide information to the Allies about occupied Indonesia. Several times he travels to New Guinea where the American attack on Japan is expected. Meanwhile Nefis expands into an organization with several hundred of employees.

At the end of WW II Spoor returns to Indonesia and he expects it to be as life continues like prior to WW II. However Indonesian Nationalism has  risen since the last months of WW II. Spoor imagined that it would collapse after the end of the Japanes occupation. That didn’t happen and two major military operations were fought over.

The Netherlands sent conscripts  to stop the rebellion and all troops are under Spoor’s command. These ‘Politional Actions’ last for 3½ years and always were marked by the tension between the Dutch government and the militaries. The army wanted to fight, but had to deal with Hollands debating government. Endless negotiations according to Spoor’s mind, but he accepted that policy. His widow stated later he’d more than once wanted to resign and often concluded ‘Let’s pack our suitcases and leave!’ He didn’t though.

The Indonesians fought in fact a guerrilla against the Dutch; no front lines, no identifiable enemy. Spoor stuck to his military strategy that had become obsolete and thus the Dutch war in Indonesia became a dirty war, and is still like an open wound in our history.

Found another piece on internet on this Colonialwar of us and surely that raises questions to this impressive monument of war victims... there are so many victims not noted like these young conscripts

In 1969 mr. Hueting gave his accounts for the Colonial War in Indonesia and said the following amongst others ~ all in all he's critical of the dutch army and government and his words raised a lot of reactions then (much denial!! and threads posed upon him & his family ~ they had to go in hiding in '69... nowadays such bell-ringers receive hate mail..)

"Actually the futility was there at the very beginning," said Hueting. "Between the warrant of warfare in the East and our actual arrival the Japanese had already left; there was no longer an enemy to fight off. So the initial reason to chase the Japanese, was not valid. Then the Indonesian freedom fighters came in view. We had to beat them in order to retain the former colony of the Netherlands. Because of this we ended up in a spiral of guerrilla and counter-guerrilla. The violence grew, on both sides. We lost grip on the fights, did not get it back, and in fact still lost touch with reality. "

"Initially we had no idea what we had to do as soldiers in Indonesia. It was so terribly painful for both Indonesians and the Dutch. I always made a distinction between the Dutch who lived there and knew the country and we, as young guys who knew nothing. It was a tragic split in worldrespect. We came as liberators, but whom had we to liberate the land from? From its own inhabitants?! Over time we became demoralized and discovered we fought against the Indonesian population. It was a lost cause, altho’ the army leadership (Spoor) never admitted that. "

Striking detail in this whole history is that many Dutch soldiers and conscripts sent to Indonesia had been in the resistance during the German occupation. Hueting says: "Nobody was expecting or counting on warcrimes. We were told that we would fulfill a peaceful mission. In retrospect, the government and military leadership sent us into battle with extremely cheated material. British Lee-Enfield rifles were worthless, our further armament was scrap, the uniforms were wholly inadequate for the tropics. Actually, we hardly knew what we had to do in Indonesia so badly we were informed. Gradually the sense of futility among the soldiers increased; which led to violence, rape, torture. "
link to Huetings account