Netherlands’ colonial past gets scrutiny

HOORN, Netherlands — The 17th century has gone down in Dutch history as the Golden Age, when trading wealth helped fund the likes of artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer.

But the grim side of the prosperity — fortunes generated by seafaring traders, slavery and iron-fisted colonial rulers — is being brought into focus amid global protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

Activists spurred by the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States are seeking to shed more light on the Dutch colonial past and tackle what they call ingrained racism and discrimination in the Netherlands.

The latest target of activists is a statue of a top officer of the Dutch East India Company who in the 17th century founded the city that is now Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.

About 500 protesters gathered Friday evening in the town of Hoorn, north of Amsterdam, calling for the removal of the statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen. A counter-demonstration supporting the statue drew fewer participants.

Honored since the late 19th century as a colonial ruler and leading light in the Dutch East India Company trading powerhouse, Coen also is reviled as the “butcher of Banda” for a bloody 1621 assault on a group of islands to secure a monopoly on spices grown there. Thousands of island inhabitants were killed.

“Everyone here today gives a voice to the victims,” one of the protest organizers, Romy Rondeltap told the crowd. “A mass murderer does not deserve a statue.”

As the demonstration in a parking lot about half-mile from the statue ended, a group of protesters tried to head toward the statue and were confronted by officers, police spokesman Menno Hartenberg said. At least one protester was detained and officers cleared the square where the statue stands as a precaution, he said.