1977 Dutch Train Hijacking

8 1 0

by tpksstories

by tpksstories

On 23 May 1977, a train washijacked near the village of Glimmen, Groningen, Netherlands. Ninearmed Moluccans pulled the emergency brake around 09:00 and tookabout 50 people hostage. The hijacking lasted for 20 days and endedwith a raid by the Dutch anti-terrorist special forces, during whichtwo hostages and six hijackers were killed.

At the same time, four otherSouth-Moluccans took hostages at an elementary school in Bovensmilde,around 20 km (12 mi) away.

This was the second train hijacking inthe Netherlands and, like the train hijacking in 1975 in Wijster, wasperpetrated by Moluccans.

Background

After fighting for the Dutch in theDutch East Indies, the South Moluccans were forcibly exiled to theNetherlands, with the Dutch government promising that they wouldeventually get their own independent state, Republic of South Maluku.After about 25 years of living in temporary camps, often in poorconditions, the South Moluccans felt that the Dutch government hadfailed to fulfil its promise. It was then that some members of theSouth Moluccans' younger generation started a series of radicalaction to bring attention to their cause.

Developments

At the same time four otherSouth-Moluccans started taking hostages at a primary school in thevillage of Bovensmilde; they took 105 children and five teachershostage. With these combined actions the hijackers wanted to forcethe (recently resigned) Dutch government to keep their promises abouttheir RMS, break diplomatic ties with the Indonesian government andrelease 21 Moluccan prisoners involved in the hostage actions in1975. An ultimatum was set for 25 May at 14:00 with the hijackersthreatening to blow up the train and the school. The hostages wereforced to help blinding all the windows so for a long period nobodyknew about what happened inside the train; it was only near the endof the hostage taking that electronic eavesdropping devices wereinstalled by marines. About 2000 marines and soldiers were stationedboth at the train and the school.

For the date of 25 May, the electionsfor the Dutch parliament were planned. The leaders of the differentparties agreed to cancel their election campaigns but the electionsitself would take place on the planned date.

After the ultimatum expired, thehijackers announced new demands; They wanted an airplane from theairport of Schiphol and to fly out with the 21 to be freed prisoners,the five teachers, and all hijackers. By means of electroniceavesdropping, minister of Justice Van Agt (under resignation) knewthat the hostages were not in danger, so the government let thissecond ultimatum pass as well.

09:00 23 May: Start of the hijack

24.May: The national broadcasterNOS reads the letter with the demands

25 May: Elections for nationalparliament, ultimatum expires without anything happening

26 May: A handcuffed hostage istaken outside the train and then taken aboard again

28 May: Hostages clean up thetrain, 60 activists offer themselves as alternative hostages

29 May: Negotiations aboutreleasing a pregnant woman are cut off

30 May: Second week of crisis

31 May: For the first time thehijackers ask for a negotiator

1 June: The hijackers ask for anambulance but later retract the request

4 June: Two negotiators talk forhours with the hijackers

5 June: Two pregnant women,including Annie Brouwer (later mayor of Utrecht), are allowed toleave the train

8 June: An ill passenger isreleased

9 June: Two negotiators talk againto the hijackers for hours

05:00 June 11: In the morning thecrisis is ended after 482 hours

Negotiators

Because of some disease in the school(probably caused by the food distributed in the school), thehijackers decided to release the children, but keep the teachers.According to medical doctor Frans Tutuhatunewa (later successor asRMS president), there was no health issue with the hostages in thetrain. Nevertheless, the health conditions of these hostages wereused as an argument for the later attack on the train.

The attack

On 11 June 1977 at 05:00, almost threeweeks after the start of the hijacking, six F-104 jet fighters of theRoyal Netherlands Air Force overflew the train at low altitude, withthe purpose of disorienting the hijackers and also make the hostagesduck down to the floor of the train where they would be relativelysafe. One of the pilots was Dick Berlijn, who later became Chief ofthe Netherlands Defence Staff.

Then marines of the specialanti-terrorist unit Bijzondere Bijstands Eenheid (BBE) startedshooting at the train; an estimated 15,000 bullets were shot at thetrain. The marines aimed at the first class and in-betweencompartments with the doors because they knew these were the areaswhere the hijackers were hiding. One of the hostages killed was insuch a compartment because she had been allowed there by thehijackers. Six hijackers were killed.

Aftermath

In 2007 there was a memorial servicefor the killed hijackers; Two of the hijackers, motivated by aconversion to Christianity, had a meeting with former victims in2007.

According to official sources, six ofthe hijackers were killed by the crossfire of bullets shot at thetrain. However many Moluccans believe that they were killeddeliberately. On 1 June 2013 it was reported that an investigation byjournalist Jan Beckers and one of the former hijackers, JunusRirimasse, had concluded that three and possibly four of thehijackers were still alive when the train was stormed and executed bymarines. In November 2014, it was revealed that Dries van Agt,Justice Minister at the time, allegedly ordered that none of thehijackers were to leave the train alive. An in-depth investigation,of which the results were published in November 2014, concludedhowever that no execution has taken place, but there were unarmedhijackers killed by marines. In 2018, a Dutch court ruled that theDutch government did not have to pay compensation to relatives of twoof the hijackers killed by marines. The ruling was upheld on appealon 1 June 2021.

In popular culture

In 2009, De Punt (television film), aDutch- and Ambonese Malay-languages television film was made aboutthis hostage crisis, directed by Hanro Smitsman.