Samenvatting

Between 1945 and 1949, ten thousands young men were, as conscripts for military service, sent to Indonesia, to join the Dutch colonial army in what at that time was called a ‘politionele actie’ (operation to restore order and security), but in fact was a war against the Indonesian Republican army fighting for independency. Some thousands of them refused to join, and were prosecuted and convicted to severe prison sentences. In February 2022, the Dutch government recognized – urged by the publication of the findings of three institutes that did research about the violence applied by the Dutch military during the independence war – that this violence was of a ‘structural extreme’ nature. Therefore, the refusers of military service have to be rehabilitated. The government up to today presented no proposals for a regulation of such a kind. Arguably, legislation is necessary to create that regulation. It would do justice to the refusers (a few of whom are still living), who by their choice were ‘on the right side of history’.