MOLUCCAN EXTREMISTS SAY: ‘Netherlands has turned us into murderers’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 30

MOLUCCAN EXTREMISTS SAY: ‘Netherlands has turned us into murderers’

'By

MICHAEL LOCKLEY,

N.Z.P.A.-Reuter cotresponden

AMSTERDAM, December 8.

The South Moluccan gunmen holding dozens of hostages in the ■ Netherlands are ineml bers of a new generation of exiles increasingly prepared to use violence to gain independence for a faraway •‘homeland” thev have never seen.

Members of the self-styled Free Young South Moluccans movement, they want independence for the South Moluccas, a cluster of remote, improverished islands in the north-east of the Indonesian archipelago. Their aim is seen as a forlorn hope by the Dutch Government, a fact which has driven the gunmen to spectacular guerrilla-stvle attacks to draw attention in the Netherlands and abroad to what they regard as a deep injustice to the Moluccan community of 40,000 in the Netherlands. The South Moluccans maintain that a 1950 agreement between the Netherlands and Indoesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies) gave them the right to independence, but ‘that the Netherlands then left them in the lurch. Nurtured on fiercelyi nationalistic sentiments at i home, the young South Moluccans are particularly bitter because most of their parents served in crack regiments of the Dutch East Indies Colonial Army. They are ethnically different from the Japanese Indonesians, and were virtually forced into exile after independence. The hijacking of a passenger train in the northern ; Netherlands and the storming iof the Indonesian Consulate

in Amsterdam formed the climax of an ever-more violent campaign in the last four years by the young militants, who had made a series of bank robberies to finance their “liberation” organisation.

One group even plotted to i seize Queen Juliana and. other members of the Royal Family in a daring operation last March: thev planned to ram the gates of the Royal Palace in Soestdijk with trucks, and overpower the : elite Royal Constabulary Guards inside. Extremists had earlier tried ;to kidnap the Indonesian Ambasador, and last December about 600 young Moluccans attacked The Hague Peace Palace, seat of the International Court of Justice, with stones and petrolbombs. They caused extensive damage, and were driven back ,by police only after pitched battles. Talks Demanded Both groups of gunmen I still holding hostages have given vent to their political frustration in setting out their demands for the release of their captives. “You people had better bear this in mind: We are not murderers, but the Netherlands has turned us into murderers,” one gunman shouted emotionally in a telephone interview with the Dutch radio service. The hijackers have said that the Netherlands must arrange talks, under United ; Nations auspices, between Indonesia and Moluccan leaders in the Netherlands. The Moluccan community, ■ close-knit and introspective even after 25 years, has never 'tried to integrate into Dutch I society. After Indonesia’s ini dependence, they were housed in makeshift camps and army barracks for years, and then settled in special districts in Dutch towns ; where housing was provided. Most of the gunmen ruthlessly defying the.police now come from these areas, where they cling doggedly to their

old customs. They rarely I i marry outside their own'! community. Many speak only!: halting Dutch, and most have I unskilled jobs. . I As a matter of pride they 1 insiston remaining Stateless,p and spurn Dutch citizenship, j Because the Moluccans live j in social isolation, in an ghetto-like atmosphere., mostj Dutchmen have never under-'] stood their grievances. They are regarded as just one more , group from another colony in:, the Netherlands’ once- , extensive overseas empire. :l “For 25 years we have used i non-violent means to gain our | independence, but to non avail,” the hijackers said injj a message after killing their third hostage. ; The gunmen, although voic-i--ing feelings widely shared ini, the South Moluccan corm ( munity, belong to a group ij ready to use violence as a I means of political expression ■ I Attacks condemned t Most of the main official t Moluccan organisations have j sharply condemned their, attacks: Mr Johan Manusama. J president of the self-styled ( Government-in-exile of the . Republic of the South ! Moluccas, said that, they were J doing more harm than good, and he has tried, without success, to negotiate their surrender. The young militants dismiss Mr Manusama. a softmannered mathematics teacher in Rotterdam, as weak and ineffectual. They; also scoff at the antics of Mr D. Tamaela, a former noncommissioned officer in the Dutch East Indies Army who has awarded himself the title, of general and lays claim to! Mr Manusama’s Presidential title. The “general” often appears in uniform to review para-military forces which train in remote parts of the Dutch countryside. He, too, has condemned the hostage seizures. Mr Manusama warned the; Dutch Government earlier' this year to be more active

in promoting the cause of the: South Moluccans, or risk the danger of armed attacks by frustrated militants, but the Government rejected his combined warning and appeal, saying that the Netherlands' policy would continue to be aimed at fully integrating !them into Dutch society — a policy the militants rejected long ago. The Prime Minister (Mr Joop den Uyl), religious; [organisations, and newspaper editorials have all expressed ■ concern that the majority of : non-violent Moluccans may become a target of resent-! iment because of the gun-: 'men s attacks. “This is a matter of! atrocious acts of terror! against innocent people.; 1 Which make people bitter and; [create feelings of hate.” the' 'Prime Minister has said. The Protestant daily, [ “Trouw.” summed up the, feelings of many Dutch poli-i ticians in a leading article: [ “They are senseless because, they bring the South! Moluccans in our country, and the cause which only aj part of them support, into: disrepute. They underline the? powerlessness’of the so-called I Southf Moluccan ‘liberation’ movement.”