Moluccans unhappy at train hijack report: raises more unanswered questions

Members of the Moluccan community in the Netherlands said on Wednesday they are extremely disappointed about a new report into the ending of a train hijack in 1977, which left two hostages and six hijackers dead.

‘The report raises more questions than it answers,’ Rop Tupan of the Moluccan Platform is quoted as saying by broadcaster Nos. The report, commissioned by the government last year, does not give an answer to claims that several of the hijackers were executed by marines, Tupan said.

The Volkskrant published secret information in 2013 which showed the hijackers were hit by 144 bullets when the stand-off was ended 20 days after the train was hijacked.

‘The violence used by marksmen and marines was within the boundaries’ those in charge considered acceptable and appropriate, the new report stated on Wednesday. Some say up to 150,000 bullets were fired at the train.

The father of one of the hijackers told the Volkskrant earlier that there was nothing new in the report and that he is again disappointed there will be no official apology for the shooting.

The Moluccan activists hijacked the train as part of their campaign to try to get the Dutch government to meet its promise of an independent state and to break ties with the Indonesian government.