‘Prince Bernhard Wanted Coup in Indonesia’

According to journalist Jort Kelder and historian Harry Veenendaal, they have found evidence that prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (1911-2004), husband of Queen Juliana, and a few of his staff members were involved in a conspiracy against the government of president Soekarno of Indonesia in1950. Rumours about this have been going around for years, but Kelder and Veenendaal claim that they have found a new source.

This afternoon the two men gave a press conference in Hotel des Indes in The Hague to present their book ‘ZKH, Hoog spel aan het hof van Zijne Koninklijke Hoogheid’ (HRH, risky games at the court of His Royal Highness). The authors used the diary of courtier Gerrie van Maasdijk. The courtier chose the side of Queen Juliana when she and prince Bernhard were having their marriage crisis over faith healer Greet Hofmans and was consequently relieved of his duties when the crisis ended. The diary of van Maasdijk have been found in the archives of the Tuyll van Serooskerken family (as his wife was a baroness from this family) a few years ago.

The source speaks about a conspiracy, in which prince Bernhard is involved. There were plans of trade in arms and even of a coup. The prince was also supposed to be involved with the notorious assault in Bandoeng by former captain, kapitein Westerling of the KNIL (Royal Dutch Indies Army). The goal of Bernhard was to become viceroy of Indonesia, like Lord Mountbatten in India. The two authors however fail to give hard evidence.

Veenendaal says that he has been working for years on this book, even before the prof. C. Fasseur presented his book about the marriage crisis between Juliana and Benrhard, last year. According to Veenendaal, in this biography prof. Fasseur was not impartial and ignored various facts against Benrhard on purpose. In the biography on the marriage crisis, Fasseur calls Gerrie van maasdijk ‘the Trojan Horse, and pointed out that he was responsible for the marriage crisis.

Today two of van Maasdijk’s three children today told newspaper ‘Telegraaf’ that they will start a law suit against prof. Fasseur Fasseur for ‘postumous character murder’ on their father. His son Robert (66) and daughter Eleonora (64) say: ‘Father always felt like a defender of the monarchy, but he was not afraid to give criticism. He was an intelligent man who dared to go against prince Bernhard. The prince didn’t accept this’.

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Books, Indonesia, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.