AMSTERDAM: Police on horseback on Friday (Jun 19) evening charged rival protesters gathered near the statue of a 17th century colonial-era Dutch officer at the centre of anti-racism demonstrators in the Netherlands.

Footage showed police with shields and batons breaking up rallies near a large statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, an officer in the Dutch East India Company who is seen by some as a hero of the country's Golden Age and by others as a brutal oppressor.