Gunmen seize school, train: children held

Press, 24 May 1977, Page 1

Gunmen seize school, train: children held

NZPA Zuidlaren (the Netherlands) South Moluccan gunmen seized a school in the northern Netherlands and took 130 children hostage yesterday, only minutes after they hijacked a passenger train.

The passengers of the train and the children’s teachers were also taken prisoner by the men, who were armed with machineguns. The gunmen, fanatical members of a 40,000-strong South Moluccan community seeking independence from Indonesia for their Pacific homeland, first stopped an inter-city train from Rotterdam to Groningen and took the passengers prisoner. Another gang burst into a primary school in Smilde, minutes later, taking the children and their teachers hostage. Authorities said that the raids appeared to be a carefully-planned repeat of twin raids by South Moluccans on a train at Beilen and the Indonesian Consulate in Amsterdam in December. 1975. The Netherlands, which used to be the colonial ruler of Indonesia, is preparing for a General Election tomorrow. The Dutch Prime Minister (Mr Joop Den Uyl) broke off his election campaign, and the Government set up a crisis centre at the Justice Ministry in The Hague to co-ordinate activities. Schiphol Airport was put on the alert, and all available police were drafted to the hijack area. First reports from the hijacked train were that several passengers, and possibly the guard and driver, had escaped. A passenger said that one gunman fired a warning shot through the train roof, but there were

no reports of any casualties. A total of 14 South Moiuccans were jailed for their parts in the 1975 raids, which cost three lives and continued for 12 and 15 days. The president of the selfstyled “Republic of the South Moiuccans," Dr Johannes Manusama, who is the leader of the Moluccan exiles in the Netherlands, deplored the attacks. “This is an action which does our cause no good at all.” he said. Dutch Railways appealed for information from relatives and friends of passengers on the train in order to establish how many people were left on board. At the school, eyewitnesses said that a few South Moluccan children were among pupils set free. The windows of the school were shrouded with newspaper. The police sent special mobile units into the area, and sealed off all roads. Aircraft were warned to avoid the area. In The Hague, a special guard was mounted on the Indonesian Embassy, and all other buildings used by Indonesians. Passengers who left the hijacked train said that one of an estimated seven attackers was a woman. She and a male companion pulled the communication cord, and the guard jammed on the brakes. The man whipped a sub-machine-gun from a plastic bag. When the train stopped, other gunmen leapt aboard. Passengers were forced

at gunpoint to the firstclass compartments, and made to kneel. About half were then freed. The authorities, fearing a third raid, mounted a tight guard on Schiphol International Airport. Police cars cruised through Amsterdam, on the alert for any groups of South Moluccans on the streets. The extremists have drawn their support from among the younger exiles, most of whom have never seen their Pacific homeland but have been reared since early childhood on a concentrated diet of nationalism and cultural pride. The young Moluccans have never forgiven the Netherlands for breaking a promise to ensure their island’s right to selfdetermination when Indonesia was granted independence.