International Relatives await outcome of Dutch train seige

Press, 11 June 1977, Page 6

International Relatives await outcome of Dutch train seige

NZPA Assen Relatives of the 51 passengers held hostage by a group ol South Moluccan gunmen on a train near Assen for the last 19 days are now resigned to waiting for a resolution that is beyond their control.

> A young relative of one ■hostage said: “The worst! ! time is about 4 o’clock in; j the afternoon, when we real-' lise that there probably won’t ibe any release today.” ] The relative is one of 'about 35 who have moved toi la nearby hotel to wait out the nightmare that began on I I May 23, when 10 South Mo-j iluccan terrorists seized the I train and a public school in! Bovensmilde. Four teachers j are still being held in the school, from which IOOi children were released earl-! ier. The gunmen demand inde-| pendence for the South Mo-! luccan islands, which are! now part of Indonesia. 1

After the latest mediation mission to the train by South Moluccan go-be-tweens, a Dutch Justice Ministry spokesman would not reveal the verbal message passed on from the Government but said that it was not an ultimatum. Howevet, the Government indicated two days ago that it was not prepared to let the twin] siege drag on indefinitely. One of the 51 hostages on; the train flashed a Morse Code message, “Come and collect us,” on Thursday, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation, The message, apparently transmitted by reflecting the sun on to a hand mirror.l

I was picked up by a 8.8. C. (camera crew. The fi!m,( {shown on television in Brit-' {ain. was examined by Dutch) {officials, who decoded the' (message. I The hostage sent it by (leaning through a half-openj carriage window and appar-( (ently did so without alerting I {the gunmen. { In The Hague, a South { ■Moluccan girl told Dutch { {television viewers that she I {planned to sue the country's{ {biggest newspaper for print-) ling a picture which wrongly[' (identified her as a train, (hijacker. She would not give her {name, but said that she was|-

[the girl shown squinting down the sights of a rifle in a front-page photo published: iby Amsterdam’s daily “De iTelegraaf” on Tuesday. I “De Telegraaf’s" caption: said the picture showed 22-{ ■year-old Hansina Oktoseja a (female member of the South (Moluccan guerrilla com-i mando group. The news-{ paper has declined to comiment, but Dutch officials (said that its identification of! IHansina as the girl hijacker) (was right, but the photoI graph was of someone else. I The unidentified Moluccan {girl said that the newspaper (picture had been taken in a [shooting gallery several) [years ago.