When the United States of Indonesia was born last month, a wave of forgive & forget sentiment swept over the archipelago. Most Dutch and Indonesian leaders recognized that their future interests ran parallel. Last week a formidable fly stuck firmly in the salve of cooperation.
The troublemaker was a part-Dutch, part-Turkish adventurer, named Raymond Paul Rocco ("Turk") Westerling, a professional soldier with a checkered past. Dashing Westerling fought with Australian troops in North Africa in 1940, later with the Dutch underground in Holland. After the war he helped organize a special Dutch force which was accused of murdering thousands of...
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