Page 5 - aruba-today-20220210

A5
WORLD NEWS Thursday 10 February 2022
New Dutch exhibition examines Indonesia’s independence

By MIKE CORDER The exhibition, which will
Associated Press travel to Indonesia next
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Video year, was pulled together
of Dutch troops overseeing by four curators, two from
the torching of houses in an the Netherlands and two
Indonesian village plays in from Indonesia.
one room of the Rijks Mu- One of the Indonesian cu-
seum in Amsterdam. A few rators, historian Bonnie Tri-
meters away, a baby’s yana, sparked controversy
clothes sewn from book last month when he criti-
covers the only scraps of cized the use of the word
cloth the mother could find “bersiap” in the exhibition.
are laid out. “If we use the term ‘ber-
The displays, which cast siap’ in general to refer to
into stark relief two differ- violence against the Dutch
ent elements of suffering, during the revolution, it
are part of a new exhibition takes on a strongly rac-
at the national museum of ist connotation,” he wrote
the Netherlands. “Revolusi! in Dutch newspaper NRC
Indonesia Independent” Handelsblad.
presents a multifaceted The word, meaning “be
view of the violent birth of ready,” is often used in the
the Southeast Asian nation Netherlands to refer to vio-
from the ashes of World An external view of the National Museum in Amsterdam with a poster advertising the show, lence by Indonesians in the
“Revolusi! Indonesia Independent”, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.
War II and three centuries Associated Press early days of the indepen-
of colonial rule. dence struggle immedi-
The array of baby clothes the eyes of 23 witnesses, on Dec. 17, 1949. a major exhibition on the ately after the end of World
“doesn’t show the violence ranging from a young In- The exhibit includes paint- country’s role in the global War II.
directly, but it’s this indirect donesian boy with a box ings, propaganda, video slave trade. One group has filed a
impact of the violence of watercolors covertly and photographs of the “If you look at the Dutch complaint with police and
that’s been shown by these painting troop movements tumultuous transformation educational system, the prosecutors over use of the
objects,” museum director in his hometown to famed of the Dutch East Indies into Indonesian independence term, saying the museum
Taco Dibbits told The As- photographer Henri Carti- Indonesia. is described from a Dutch “knowingly continues to
sociated Press on Wednes- er-Bresson’s iconic images The show is part of the Rijks perspective, and we feel it use a term that stigmatizes
day. of President Sukarno being Museum’s examination of very important to continu- Indonesians in a colonial
Indonesia’s War of Inde- sworn into office at the sul- the Netherlands’ colonial ously broaden our history,” way.”q
pendence is shown through tan’s palace in Yogyakarta past that last year featured Dibbits said.

Italian police allegedly urged death for American suspects

By FRANCES D’EMILIO of murder and given Italy’s botched attempt to buy
Associated Press stiffest punishment life im- cocaine. Shortly after the
ROME (AP) — Several mem- prisonment. An appeals tri- suspects were arrested at
bers of Italy’s Carabinieri al for the two is scheduled their hotel, Natale-Hjorth
paramilitary police force to start in Rome on Thurs- was blindfolded with a
called for the deaths or day. Carabinieri Vice Briga- scarf as he sat in a chair for
beatings of two American dier Mario Cerciello Rega, questioning at a police sta-
teenagers who were arrest- 35, was stabbed 11 times tion. A photo of the blind-
ed in the hours after an of- by Elder, and his police folding, which is illegal and
ficer’s slaying, Italian media partner was slightly injured a violation of police proce-
reported Wednesday. in a scuffle with both defen- dure in Italy, circulated in
A Carabinieri officer has dants on a street near their the Italian media.
been charged with using hotel where the Americans On Wednesday, Italian
unjustified measures in han- were staying while on sum- newspaper Corriere della
dling a suspect for alleg- mer holiday. Sera quoted from tran-
edly blindfolding one of the At their trial, the Americans scripts presented at the offi- Finnegan Lee Elder, right, shows a crucifix to co-defendant
teens illegally as he await- testified they were acting in cer’s trial of phone messag- Gabriel Natale-Hjorth before a jury began deliberating their
ed questioning at a police self-defense against a pair ing chats involving several fate in their trial for the slaying of an Italian plainclothes police
station. Phone messaging of men they believed were Carabinieri after the arrests. officer on a street near the hotel where they were staying while
chats involving several Car- thugs. Cerciello Rega’s Some messages demand- on vacation in Rome in summer 2019, in Rome, on May 5, 2021. S
abinieri hours after the July partner testified that the ed that the Americans re- Associated Press

2019 arrests of the young two officers had identified ceive the death penalty would meet the same fate years in prison.

tourists were introduced as themselves clearly as Cara- which Italy doesn’t have as an Italian man who was Carabinieri officials on
evidence at the officer’s binieri but that they were or that they be put into a severely beaten in 2009 Wednesday called the
trial on Wednesday. immediately attacked closed room and killed. An- while in Carabinieri custody chat messages “offensive
Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and without cause. The officers other message suggested and later died. Two Cara- and abominable” and
Finnegan Lee Elder, re- were on a plainclothes mis- that the two be “dissolved binieri police officers were pledged to immediately
spectively 18 and 19 at the sion to investigate an al- in acid.” eventually convicted of in- discipline the officers in-
time of the slaying in Rome, leged extortion attempt by Still another message voluntary homicide in that volved, Italian news agen-
were convicted last year the Americans following a wished that the young men case and sentenced to 13 cy Lapresse said.q