1977 Dutch train hostage crisis

1977 Dutch train hostage crisis
Hijacker running past the hijacked train with a South-Moluccan flag
Location	Glimmen, Netherlands
Coordinates	53°7′N 6°36′E / 53.117°N 6.600°E / 53.117; 6.600Coordinates: 53°7′N 6°36′E / 53.117°N 6.600°E / 53.117; 6.600
Date	May 23 - June 11, 1977
Target	Train
Attack type	hostage-taking
Weapons	Guns / Handguns
Deaths	8 (including 6 perpetrators)
Non-fatal injuries	6
Perpetrators	Moluccan youth (9 perpetrators)
Motive	A free South Moluccan Republic (Republik Maluku Selatan)

On May 23, 1977, a train hijacking took place close to Drentsche Aa river bridge at de Punt (in the village of Glimmen) on the provincial border between Groningen and Drenthe, northeastern Netherlands. Nine armed Moluccans pulled the emergency brake around 9 AM and took about 50 people hostage. The hijacking lasted for 482 hours (20 days); two hostages and six hijackers were killed.

At the same time four other South-Moluccans took hostages at an elementary school in the village of Bovensmilde, also in Drenthe.

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

After fighting for the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies, the South Moluccans were forcibly exiled to the Netherlands, with the Dutch government promising that they would eventually get their own independent state, Republic of South Maluku. After about 25 years of living in temporary camps, often in poor conditions, the South Moluccans felt that the Dutch government had failed to fulfil its promise. It was then that some members of the South Moluccans' younger generation started a series of radical action to bring attention to their cause.

See Republik Maluku Selatan for more information about the RMS case.

At the same time four other South-Moluccans started taking hostages at a primary school in the village of Bovensmilde; they took 105 children and five teachers hostage. With these combined actions the hijackers wanted to force the (recently resigned) Dutch government to keep their promises about their RMS, break diplomatic ties with the Indonesian government and release 21 Moluccan prisoners involved in the hostage actions in 1975. An ultimatum was set for May 25 at 14:00 (2 pm) with the hijackers threatening to blow up the train and the school. The hostages were forced to help blinding all the windows so for a long period nobody knew about what happened inside the train; it was only near the end of the hostage taking that electronic eavesdropping devices were installed by marines. About 2000 marines and soldiers were stationed both at the train and the school.