A recent visit by the King and Queen of the Netherlands to Indonesia was the first by Dutch royals in a quarter of a century. More significant, however, was King Willem-Alexander's direct and unreserved apology for the violent excesses of his country's four-year struggle to reimpose colonial rule in the former Dutch East Indies after the Second World War.
His comments will stimulate renewed efforts to seek accountability for historical atrocities in other former colonies of European and Asian powers. But they should also prompt soul-searching in Indonesia and fellow post-colonial nations about human rights abuses since independence, for which their governments have proved as reluctant to apologize as their imperial predecessors.
