On ‘Extreme Violence’ and ‘Impunity’

A key element of the conclusions of the large-scale ODGOI project was the frequent and structural usage by Dutch armed forces of ‘extreme violence’. This extreme violence was enabled by the climate of impunity created by politicians, civil servants, judges, and others in authority positions. The choice not to describe such violence as ‘war crimes’ led to a storm of criticism. This essay rather focuses on the concepts of ‘extreme violence’ and ‘impunity’ themselves. It argues that these terms remain undertheorised, tend to obscure important differences between the violence of the coloniser and the violence of the colonised, and provide limited guidance in addressing questions of historic responsibility and implication.