Tomorrow an evidentiary hearing will be held at the District Court of The Hague in the civil court case against the State of the Netherlands regarding the ‘Moluccan train hostage crisis’ that took place near De Punt in the Dutch province Drenthe in the summer of 1977. The train siege was ended by force on 11 June 1977 by a large-scale military operation under the code name ‘Mercedes’. Within the context of this operation, two hostages and six of the nine hijackers were killed. Documents that became available to the surviving relatives at the end of 2013 reveal that hijackers Hansina Uktolseja and Max Papilaja were executed by marines who entered the train.
Plaintiffs in these court proceedings against the Dutch State are Max Papilaja’s mother and two of Hansina Uktolseja’s brothers. It is to be noted upfront that they are not using this case to justify the hijacking of the train in and of itself. For them, the point of the procedure is to find out the truth about what happened to their son and sister. All the more so because it has become clear that the State of the Netherlands kept a lot of information about ‘Operation Mercedes’ and the death of the hijackers hidden in the years after 1977, both from the surviving relatives and from the Dutch people.
The plaintiffs are represented by lawyers Liesbeth Zegveld and Brechtje Vossenberg.
The evidentiary hearing will take place at the District Court of The Hague (Prins Clauslaan 60) and will commence at 09:30 o’clock.
Annexes (in Dutch; including interviews with the surviving relatives)
- A. van Es, ‘Waarom is mijn zoon bij De Punt geëxecuteerd?’, Volkskrant | 3 November 2016
- D. Smithuijsen, 'Verslagen. Maar toch ook trots op Hansina', NRC Handelsblad | 3 november 2016
- Interview Marco Papilaja (woordvoerder nabestaanden) met Emerson Terinathe 'Wij accepteren niet de manier waaróp zij zijn geëxecuteerd', via Nieuwsassen.nl | 1 november 2016
- 'Marinier: Molukkers De Punt mochten bestorming niet overleven', NOS | 17 October 2016 (also here)
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