THE HAGUE, Aug 15: At the 60th anniversary of Japanese capitulation and the end of the Japanese occupation of then Dutch colony Indonesia, Foreign Minister Ben Bot said on Monday that The Hague “morally and politically” accepted the date of Indonesia’s independence as August 17, 1945.

With this admission the Netherlands has put and end to a dispute that cast a shadow over Dutch-Indonesian relations for almost 60 years. Bot was to fly to Indonesia to be the first Dutch cabinet member present at the independence celebrations in Indonesia on August 17.

“I will explain to the Indonesian people that my presence there should be seen as a moral and political acceptance of that date,” Bot told thousands of people who had gathered in The Hague to commemorate the end of World War II for the Dutch Indies as Indonesia was then known.

“What is important is that we speak openly with the Indonesians. With the support of the Dutch government I will impress upon the Indonesian people that the Netherlands understands that de-facto independence started on August 17, 1945 and that we — 60 years after the fact — accept this fact generously in a moral and political sense,” he added.

The foreign minister also admitted that handover of sovereignty to Indonesia had taken longer than necessary.

“Only after the fact it is clear that the separation of Indonesia and the Netherlands has taken longer, with more military violence than was necessary,” he said.—AFP