When Dutch Marines Made a Massacre

0:02 It's the 23rd of May 1977 at seven past nine in the morning.

0:07 Max Papilaya pulls on the emergency break of the train from Assen to Groningen.

0:12 The train screeches to a halt.

0:15 Max and eight friends tell the passengers, 'This is a hijacking.' At the same

0:20 time four youths walk into an elementary school.

0:23 They take 105 children and their teachers hostage.

0:27 The longest hijacking in history has begun.

0:31 482 hours later Dutch Marines set out to free the hostages.

0:37 Four tanks rush towards the school and six

0:41 fighter jets roar through the skies towards the train.

0:45 The attempt to end the hijacking turns into the bloodiest

0:49 action in the Netherlands since the second world war.

0:52 'Is this one dead?' 'Yes, now he is!' And it leads to one

0:57 of the biggest government cover-ups in Dutch history.

1:01 'It remains in execution.' How did we get here?

1:08 The train has stopped on a bend in the tracks close to the village De Punt.

1:15 The hijackers are of South Moluccan descent, a minority in the Netherlands.

1:20 They quickly release a few hostages,

1:22 mainly older people and those that are not ethnically Dutch.

1:25 In their eyes the remaining hostages are guilty

1:28 of supporting the Dutch government in a big injustice.

1:31 But the train is less important now.

1:33 The eyes of the nation are on the school hijacking.

1:37 The Dutch Secretary of Justice reflects this sentiment.

1:40 'It's horrible that they went so far as to involve a school with children

1:44 in it.' Two hostage situations on the same day is not a coincidence.

1:48 These attacks have been months in the planning.

1:50 The leader of the group is 25 year old Max Papilaya.

1:53 In his daily life he is not in the business of taking hostages.

1:57 He works as a civil servant.

1:59 He is active in a Moluccan Christian youth club.

2:02 And he is frustrated with the government of the Netherlands.

2:05 There is also a girl in the group, Hansina Uktolseja.

2:08 This morning she left a letter to her parents.

2:12 'Daddy and mommy, if you find this letter I

2:15 am no longer at home but with my friends.

2:18 I am a South Moluccan and a Christian and I am not afraid to die.

2:22 If I get shot that's okay because it will not have been in vain.

2:26 It will be for a purpose that is not

2:29 meaningless.' Hansina has no history of political extremism either.

2:32 She is a dental assistant.

2:34 But she has a secret relationship with Marcus Rudi Lumalessil, another hijacker.

2:38 In this way she can be close to him.

2:41 The hijackers share a list of demands.

2:44 They want the release of 21 Moluccan prisoners,

2:46 a bus to the airport and a flight to a destination of their choice.

2:50 If the government does not accept within 48 hours

2:53 they will throw a hand grenade in between the children.

2:57 The deadline is set for Wednesday, 2 pm.

3:02 Growing up I didn't know much about

3:06 the South Moluccan minority in the Netherlands.

3:09 But in the 1970s the papers were filled with reports of attacks,

3:14 hijacking and hostage situations by people from this community.

3:18 I wanted to understand this story, so I spent months researching,

3:22 I visited locations and I animated how this hijacking happened.

3:30 430 years ago, four Dutch ships set sail in search of spice, their destination?

3:43 Indonesia.

3:44 They came to trade but soon wanted control.

3:47 The main post turned into a thirst for territory.

3:50 To conquer all the islands of Indonesia the Dutch needed clerks,

3:54 nurses and soldiers.

3:55 They found many of them in this area, the Moluccas.

3:59 In a sea of Muslim subjects, here the Dutch found islands of Christianity.

4:03 Many joined the Royal Dutch Indies Army.

4:06 Other groups don't always like that, they

4:09 are sometimes called Belanda Hitam, Black Dutch.

4:13 The relationship between the Dutch and the Moluccas would not be good forever.

4:23 The Dutch government establishes a crisis center to manage the situation.

4:28 Specialized police and military units,

4:30 including the newly founded anti-terror unit

4:33 ‘Bijzondere Bijstandseenheid’’ are deployed to the scene.

4:35 By now there is a phone line to the train,

4:37 so negotiators can talk to the hijackers.

4:39 They demand food and supplies, a trolley is brought to the train,

4:43 a journey that will be made 51 more times.

4:46 The hijackers want to show they are serious.

4:49 To put pressure on the government they place

4:51 two hostages outside of the train at gunpoint.

4:54 One of them is 23 year old Rosemarie Oostveen.

4:57 I fought back fiercely saying that I didn't want to die

5:00 because they didn't stand for something I was willing to die for.

5:04 In response they told me it wasn't their intention to kill me.

5:08 But this is information the outside world does not have.

5:11 And the Moluccas try to put the government under pressure in other ways.

5:14 At the school they ask the kids to recite some words.

5:17 Words aimed at the secretary of justice.

5:20 The children hang out of the windows and chant.

5:31 This almost makes worried parents break

5:33 the barricades to free their kids themselves.

5:35 Then there is a mismatch between communication

5:39 to the outside and what actually happens inside.

5:44 One hundred nine days after the death of Germany's

5:53 famous failed art student Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands.

5:59 The Dutch went to war to defeat

6:01 the rebels and many Moluccans fought on their side.

6:06 After four years the Dutch finally let go of their colony.

6:15 The peace treaty, Indonesia's leader agreed to a united state

6:19 of Indonesia with relative freedom for places like the Moluccas.

6:23 But within a year the Indonesian leader betrayed

6:26 the agreement and proclaims a nation state instead.

6:30 The South Moluccas declare independence but Indonesia invades them.

6:35 Many Moluccan soldiers of the Royal Dutch Army are in barracks across Indonesia.

6:39 They want to go home and fight.

6:42 But Indonesia doesn't want trained soldiers joining the resistance.

6:46 So where should the soldiers go?

6:48 The Dutch want to stay friendly with the new Indonesian state.

6:51 So they pressure the Moluccas and take

6:55 them and their families to the Netherlands.

7:06 But temporary will not be the reality of their stay.

7:12 It's the day of the ultimatum.

7:15 The situation is tense.

7:17 The government has decided that if two hostages are

7:20 executed the BBE will storm the train in the school,

7:23 without proper planning it is a big risk.

7:25 The main strategy of the government is to wear the hostage takers out.

7:29 To stop the ultimatum they say they are willing

7:32 to talk about the demands of giving a free passage.

7:35 The children always had absolute priority so

7:38 we said we are willing to discuss granting

7:40 safe passage which is at least for a lawyer

7:43 something different from actually offering safe passage.

7:46 To keep it to talking about free passage

7:49 instead of granting it the government complicates every step.

7:52 They say they can give the hijackers a plane

7:55 but they just need to know the destination.

7:57 And if the hijackers share a destination they will

8:00 contact the country to make sure it's not possible.

8:03 On the side of the hijackers Max is in charge.

8:06 He refuses to share where they want to go.

8:10 He has reasons not to trust the Dutch government.

8:15 Max Papilay was born in a camp in the Netherlands.

8:20 I'm at Schattenberg.

8:21 This is one of the places where the Moluccans

8:23 were housed after they were sent to the Netherlands.

8:26 But it wasn't always called that.

8:28 In the second world war it was called Westerbork.

8:31 And this was the place where all the Dutch Jews

8:34 were allocated before they were sent to their final destination.

8:46 My mother told me that there were many fairy tales

8:55 about what was not in the barracks in terms of spirits.

8:56 Vita Pical is of Moluccan descent.

8:58 She remembers where her grandmother lived.

9:02 Now they know what happened.

9:04 It's not strange.

9:05 Moluccans are settled here and in barracks all over the Netherlands.

9:08 They are cut off from the society.

9:10 They are not allowed to work.

9:12 They receive food stamps.

9:13 All because their stay was supposed to be temporary.

9:16 But for Max's generation the worst thing is what happened to their fathers.

9:20 The moment they set foot on Dutch soil they are fired from the army.

9:26 They fought for the Dutch flag.

9:31 And then they came here.

9:36 They had no soldiers left.

9:40 Nothing at all.

9:40 And they had to wait.

9:40 And that took years.

9:41 The next morning is off at the school.

9:42 One of the children gets sick.

9:44 She has to vomit and falls ill.

9:46 The hijackers discuss with the government and release her.

9:49 But that night suddenly more and more children fade and have to throw up.

9:53 The hijackers talk to a doctor who thinks it could be something very serious.

9:58 During a long discussion in the middle

10:00 of the night the Dutch negotiator promises

10:02 the hijackers that the government will grant

10:04 them free passage out of the country.

10:06 They just have to release the children.

10:08 The next morning the children go free.

10:11 Only the four teachers remain.

10:13 But the government is not willing to keep its promise.

10:16 The hijackers feel they have been played.

10:19 They hope the train will now make the difference.

10:22 Max sees the generation of his parents hurting.

10:25 They want to go back to the Moluccas.

10:28 But they can't.

10:29 The parents go on peaceful protests.

10:32 They want the Dutch government to pressure

10:36 the Indonesians to establish an independent Moluccan republic.

10:39 But after 350 years of colonial relations,

10:42 the Dutch don't want to pass critique on the new Indonesian government.

10:46 They want to keep relations positive

10:48 and have big business interests in the country.

10:50 They have no intention of fighting for the Moluccan ideal.

10:55 Don't the Moluccans see their cause is hopeless?

11:05 At the train the negotiations aren't as still made.

11:09 The government still wants to hear what their hijackers plan on going.

11:13 And the hijackers don't want to share it.

11:16 In the train a certain routine starts to emerge.

11:19 A certain rhythm developed in the train.

11:21 Some people did morning gymnastics.

11:22 There was more and more card playing.

11:25 Games were played and chess boards appeared.

11:27 Certain people asked to take on specific tasks.

11:30 Cleaning up new waste,

11:32 tidying up the place or removing the waste from under the train.

11:36 You could see the instinct for survival in people.

11:39 And in my perception people also became rather selfish.

11:42 When cigarettes were brought in people struggled to share them.

11:45 The focus was very much on the inner world of the train.

11:48 Not so much on the outside world.

11:51 "...In the outside world the government is getting frustrated.

11:54 If there is no progress with the negotiations they

11:57 need to think of other ways to end this.

11:59 Earlier Moluccan actions have resulted in violence.

12:04 In 1975 the small village of Wijster becomes world news.

12:09 Moluccan youths hijack a train.

12:11 Yes, there was another train hijacking.

12:14 One and a half years before De Punt.

12:17 But these hijackers immediately start killing hostages.

12:20 In the end three people die.

12:23 How did this happen?

12:25 Almost ten years before, Christiaan Soumokil,

12:28 the president of the Moluccan Republic

12:30 was executed by the Indonesian government.

12:32 His death makes young Moluccans in the Netherlands extremely angry.

12:36 All those peaceful protests their parents had dragged them

12:39 to did nothing to bring a free Moluccas closer.

12:42 So to show the world this injustice they start violent actions.

12:46 They even make plans to take the Dutch Queen hostage.

12:50 But hijacking a train, well, that will make the headlines.

12:53 The hijackers demand the release of political prisoners

12:56 and a flight to a country of their choice.

12:58 They are inspired by a Japanese militant group that took

13:01 the French ambassador hostage and got a flight out of the country.

13:06 In the French embassy those Japanese had also been granted safe passage.

13:10 We assumed that the Dutch government would never abandon the hostages

13:13 to their fate and that they would give in after a few hours.

13:16 But with the Japanese the government only granted

13:19 free passage because a foreign ambassador was at risk.

13:22 When the hijackers then start executing hostages

13:25 the secretary of justice is sure of one thing.

13:29 They try to send important persons from the Moluccan community to negotiate.

13:35 One of them is Josina Soumokil,

13:38 the wife of the legendary resistance fighter Kristian Soumokil.

13:41 She is seen as the mother of all Moluccans.

13:45 Josina tells the hijackers that they are

13:47 endangering people on the Moluccas with their actions.

13:50 With this she convinces them to surrender.

13:52 It must mean that she wasn't just making that up.

13:55 And we absolutely did not want people

13:58 in the Moluccas to face problems because of our actions.

14:02 This train hijacking lasted 12 days.

14:05 It was ended by Josina's intervention.

14:07 But her part in the next hijacking will have a completely different effect.

14:12 With the negotiations in that log Josina Soumokil

14:17 is once again asked to negotiate with the hijackers.

14:21 But after her role two years ago

14:23 she has been criticized by the Moluccan community.

14:25 Did she sell out the boys to the Dutch government?

14:28 When the hijackers ask her to help them she doesn't hesitate.

14:31 They tell her what they kept hidden from the government.

14:34 Where they want to go.

14:36 They have three destinations they think might take them in.

14:39 Vietnam, Yemen and Benin.

14:41 They need her to get in contact

14:43 with friends so they can contact these countries.

14:45 She does not tell anyone from the government about this plan.

14:49 The Moluccans learn from the first hijacking

14:51 that executing hostages will get them nowhere.

14:54 They have no intention of using violence.

14:56 But the Dutch government doesn't know that.

14:58 They are losing faith in a peaceful solution.

15:01 And they are also worried about the BBE.

15:03 The well-being of the hostages was of course the priority.

15:07 But our fatigue also played a role.

15:09 We were dealing with two targets simultaneously.

15:11 The train and the school.

15:12 And that was quite a lot.

15:14 People were getting tired,

15:15 had been away from home for so long and were starting to show signs

15:19 of 'this is enough for us.' You need

15:21 well rested individuals to carry out such an operation.

15:25 The BBE operatives couldn't simply be replaced.

15:27 They had a distinctly different training compared to other marines.

15:30 So on the 7th of June the government asks the marines to work

15:35 on a plan to free the hijackers from the train by force.

15:40 Josina Soumokil comes back to the train.

15:43 She has a message for the hijackers.

15:46 Hold on, Benin will receive all of you.

15:49 The 21 detained boys agree.

15:52 Request free exodus, an airplane and no prosecution.

15:57 Burn this letter.

15:59 The hijackers finally get the news they wanted.

16:01 It's amazing.

16:02 They have an opportunity to go to another country.

16:05 They just have to sit tight and stick to their demands.

16:08 Mentally, they dig in.

16:10 The reality is, Benin has no place to take them in.

16:13 It is unclear where the information on leave will come from.

16:17 For the Dutch government, this is totally out of the question.

16:20 They have no intention of letting the hijackers leave the country.

16:24 And by now, the marines have made a plan.

16:33 The marines have gathered information by monitoring

16:35 the train with infrared and heat cameras.

16:36 Buggd provision creates and talking to freed hostages.

16:40 Based on this information,

16:41 they believe the hostages are separated into two compartments,

16:44 one for men and one for women.

16:46 They think hijackers are in the front,

16:48 on the balconies between the compartments and in the back of the train.

16:52 The aim of the plan is to storm the train

16:55 and to prevent the hijackers from reaching the hostages.

16:57 But the information they have will prove to be incorrect.

17:01 The plan has two parts.

17:02 The first part is outside the train.

17:04 Three groups of snipers will shoot at the parts

17:07 of the train the hijackers need to take to reach the hostages.

17:10 And crucially, they will also shoot

17:12 at the place the marines think the hijackers sleep.

17:15 Group Lima 1 will attack the train from the east.

17:18 Kilo 2 will shoot from the north.

17:20 And Lima 2 will shoot at the legs of any fleeing hijackers.

17:24 During the shooting, six fighter jets will fly over the train

17:27 with their afterburners open to disorient the hijackers.

17:30 At the same time, a team of frogmen will simulate

17:33 the fighters dropping bombs by detonating explosives next to the train.

17:37 At the last moment, four machine gunners are added to the sniper groups.

17:41 The groups are armed with 9,960 rounds of ammunition.

17:44 The second part of the attack is the approach by marines.

17:49 Five attack groups will approach the train.

17:51 They will use wooden frames fitted

17:54 with an explosive charge to blast the train doors.

17:57 Some marines are armed with revolvers, others with UZIs.

18:00 The marines in the front part of the train expect the most resistance.

18:05 They are allowed to put their UZIs to automatic fire.

18:08 The rest have to keep them to single shot.

18:11 The revolvers are loaded with hollow point ammunition.

18:14 In contrast to normal rounds that pass through a body,

18:17 hollow point expands in the body.

18:22 This makes it way more deadly.

18:26 For this reason, it has been banned in international warfare since 1899.

18:33 But there is no ban for domestic use.

18:36 The marines want ammunition because they will be able

18:39 to shoot hijackers without the bullets then hitting other hostages.

18:42 The marines also receive instructions of what

18:44 kind of violence they are allowed to use.

18:46 Once inside the train,

18:47 the most important guideline for the marines is that they are not

18:51 allowed to fire on hijackers that surrender in a clearly observable manner.

18:56 The purpose of the attack was to immediately free the hostages and arrest

19:01 the hijackers Our constitutional state is still set up to arrest suspects.

19:06 This said, in discussion about the attack,

19:08 the government accepts that every hijacker could die.

19:11 This does not mean the decision is taken lightly.

19:14 Especially the prime minister, Joop Den Uyl, is against the attack.

19:19 Joop Den Uyl wanted to negotiate.

19:21 Well, I sometimes said, until kingdom come.

19:23 He thought the risks were too great.

19:26 That was a dramatic discussion.

19:27 Joop Den Uyl was in tears.

19:30 He saw the possibility of terrible things.

19:33 After a long discussion, the five ministers take a vote.

19:37 Two are against.

19:38 Three in favour.

19:40 The attack is set in motion.

19:43 The attack is planned to start at 4.45.

19:49 At 3am, five groups of marines start their approach to the train.

19:56 They have to cross a river.

19:58 An hour later, they are in position.

20:00 At this time, the code word to initiate the attack is given.

20:05 Mercedes.

20:05 At 4.30, six starfighter jets take off from their base.

20:09 Six minutes later, sniper group Lima reports they are ready to fire.

20:14 But the radio of one sniper is not working.

20:18 Three minutes later, they report they are ready.

20:21 The attack is supposed to start,

20:23 but ground misses, obscuring the view of the train.

20:27 The attack is postponed.

20:28 Five minutes later, there is a last check if everything is normal in the train.

20:34 As the fighter jets can be heard in the distance, the attack commences.

20:46 It is 4.54.

20:49 Six fighter jets pass over the train multiple times.

20:59 Frogmen detonate explosions.

21:01 In the train, all hell breaks loose.

21:06 Rudi and Hansina were sleeping in the back of the train.

21:11 When the shooting starts, they move towards the hostages.

21:15 Hansina is hit and she is unable to continue.

21:18 Rudi tells her to pray.

21:19 He continues towards the compartment where the women are.

21:22 He later says he has one goal.

21:25 To shoot all passengers.

21:26 He reaches the women's compartment.

21:28 The plan to contain the hijackers has failed.

21:31 At the same time, the marines approach the train from the north.

21:34 As they come closer, they think they are fired at.

21:37 I saw a weapon coming out of that window.

21:39 A whole string came over my head.

21:41 I immediately stuffed the space where he was sitting.

21:44 After that, there was no more shooting.

21:46 Research has shown it was most likely ricocheted bullets from the snipers.

21:50 No window was opened.

21:51 No shell casing found inside the train.

21:54 It does make the marines more tense.

21:57 At 5.02, the marines are in their position.

22:00 They put the blast frames on the windows.

22:02 The sign is given to ignite.

22:04 For the group at position one, the blast frame does not work.

22:09 The marines break the window to enter.

22:12 They find no hijackers.

22:13 Group two is led by the commander Rinus.

22:16 For them, the blast frame works.

22:17 His group enters the train.

22:19 He encounters Hansina.

22:20 I stormed inside and immediately opened fire

22:23 in the direction of the corner opposite me.

22:26 When I entered, I didn't see Hansina lying there yet.

22:30 Then I saw Hansina.

22:31 She was lying half on the floor.

22:34 I recognized her.

22:35 We had received pictures of all the hijackers.

22:37 She was still alive at that moment.

22:40 She shook her head a little.

22:43 She shouted 'Mama!

22:44 Mama!' She was shot.

22:45 But someone who is shot and has a weapon himself can still shoot.

22:49 I then fired another burst at Hansina with my Uzi from close range.

22:55 Hansina was unarmed.

22:57 For the group going to balcony three, the blast frame doesn't seem to work.

23:03 When a marine expects it, it goes off anyway.

23:05 He is hit by wood splinters.

23:07 The other marines throw a flashbang and enter.

23:10 Marine Ruud goes to the first compartment and hears hijackers.

23:13 Things were being shouted that I couldn't understand.

23:16 Then I stopped for a moment to think.

23:19 Should I shoot them or not?

23:20 Then I thought to myself 'No, I won't do it.' One hijacker is shot,

23:25 but alive and lying on another hijacker.

23:28 In the next compartment they find a dead hijacker and arrest another.

23:31 At balcony four the blast frame works.

23:33 The marines are greeted with an unexpected sight.

23:36 They see a girl that was not supposed to be there.

23:39 Contrary to received intelligence, two girls,

23:41 Ansje Monsjou and Rosemarie Oostveen,

23:44 were sleeping in the balcony between the men's and the women's compartment.

23:47 Oostveen got hit in the leg.

23:49 She crawled to the men's compartment and another hostage helped her.

23:52 By that time, Monsjou was already dead.

23:54 The group continues on the train.

23:56 They see hijacker Rudi.

23:57 He has all the time to start a massacre.

24:00 But he does not go through with his first idea.

24:04 I couldn't muster the courage.

24:06 When he sees the marines, he fires and hits one marine in the arm.

24:10 The marines return fire.

24:11 They hit a hostage in the head.

24:13 In a chaos, one of the hostages has stood up and is moving forward.

24:17 He is killed by the fire of the marines.

24:19 Ruud grabs a hostage and aims his weapon at her.

24:22 The marines throw an attack grenade.

24:24 This explosion tears a hole in the ground and three hostages get injured.

24:27 Ruud's gun goes off accidentally and he hits the hostage.

24:31 The grenade makes him surrender.

24:33 The marines are able to take him in.

24:35 At balcony 5, the marines think they are being shot at.

24:38 They return fire.

24:39 When they enter the train, they shoot through the toilet doors.

24:42 They can't see in the first compartments.

24:44 They fire through the doors.

24:45 Two hijackers are behind this door and neither survive the attack.

24:49 At the last door, one marine says he sees movement.

24:53 He shoots through the door of the final

24:55 compartment and shoots the person inside.

24:57 The last hijacker is shot.

24:59 The operation is over.

25:01 The whole operation has taken just over 10 minutes.

25:06 The action of the marines, 180 seconds.

25:10 After 482 hours, the train hijacking is over.

25:14 At the same time, four armored personnel carriers rush to the school.

25:20 One ramps the facade.

25:22 All Moluccans surrender and are arrested.

25:24 The marines become heroes.

25:26 They risk their lives to free the hostages.

25:29 The hostages are reunited with their family members.

25:32 But it is not a happy end for everyone.

25:37 Rien van Baarel was a breadwinner of his family, Ans Monsjou,

25:42 who turned 20 inside the train, is killed by Dutch bullets.

25:46 The Molokan community mourns six dead.

25:49 When the relatives of the killed hijackers receive their bodies,

25:54 there is a surprise.

25:55 They receive their sons and daughter

25:57 in a closed casket with only a small window.

26:00 Historical research has shown this was a standard procedure at the time.

26:06 But when they hear they are not allowed to open the caskets,

26:10 this raises suspicion for the families.

26:12 And the action of the Dutch government after the end

26:15 of the hijacking makes it seem like they have something to hide.

26:18 and the action of the Dutch government after the end

26:19 of the hijacking makes it seem like they have something to hide.

26:21 The Moluccan families are not allowed to see

26:22 the autopsy reports of how the hijackers died.

26:24 Journalists are not allowed to see the broken train.

26:27 And when the surviving hijackers appear before court,

26:29 they are only given light sentences.

26:31 The government rushed the trial.

26:33 'To avoid awkward questions about the actions of the marines.' And then there

26:38 is the way the Secretary of Justice

26:40 informs the Dutch parliament about the action.

26:42 He says the shootings before the attack were not meant to kill the hijackers.

26:46 'We knew that there was a risk that the death

26:48 of some of them would be the consequence.' In reality,

26:51 the government had accepted the death of all hijackers.

26:53 On the actions of the marines, he says, inside the train,

26:57 'No shot was fired at a hijacker who did not resist

27:00 with a firearm.' This line of reasoning is repeated for more than three decades.

27:03 The problem is, it is not true.

27:06 It was only hijacker Rudi that was armed and attacked the marines.

27:10 In 2000, an interview with the old prime minister, recorded in 1987, is aired.

27:15 In it, he accepts the responsibility for the attack,

27:19 an attack he never wanted, because...

27:21 'It remains an execution of people breaking the law,

27:25 but it is an execution.' An execution?

27:29 Twelve years later, a Dutch journalist finds

27:31 the autopsy reports that were conducted after the fact.

27:33 These reports show facts that the government never shared.

27:36 The amount of bullet holes in the bodies.

27:38 And that two hijackers, Hansina and Max, have burn marks on their bodies.

27:44 These burn marks appear when weapons are

27:47 fired on or extremely close to the skin.

27:49 The journalist says the hijackers have been executed.

27:52 The government starts an investigation into what happened.

27:56 In a 179-page document, they put together all the information.

28:00 In the end, their conclusion was that the marines did not cross any lines.

28:05 The violence did not exceed the limit of what

28:08 was expected and accepted by the state, it says.

28:11 But there are still many questions.

28:13 With the new information,

28:14 family members of the hijackers sued the Dutch government in 2014.

28:17 After decades of uncertainty, they want the truth.

28:20 What really happened in the train?

28:22 Did the government give orders to kill the hijackers?

28:24 The main case they bring forward is the death of Hansina and Max.

28:28 Point of the prosecution is that the law

28:30 of war states it is forbidden to shoot wounded combatants.

28:33 Did they pose a threat to the marines?

28:37 Or were their deaths unnecessary?

28:39 During the trial, new information comes to light.

28:42 There is a report by the British

28:44 defence attache about the briefing before the attack.

28:46 Marines should fire on the legs of the hijackers.

28:49 But a high officer is supposed to have said...

28:53 'Remember, their legs go up to their necks.' Clearly, from all the evidence,

28:57 the marines were intended to kill all or as many

29:01 of the terrorists as possible to avoid problems in the courts afterwards.

29:05 The official line had been that the marines should apprehend the hijackers.

29:09 And the marines in the train and the government deny any order to kill.

29:14 After all, didn't many hijackers survive?

29:16 But multiple witnesses state that the commander of the Tecana

29:20 school found it morally reprehensible to execute the hijackers.

29:23 And it was clear the marines had different ideas about the approach.

29:26 The commander had said that it would be good if they were all shot.

29:31 Shot dead.

29:32 This statement was made when tensions were high.

29:35 Maybe it shouldn't be taken at face value.

29:38 But it does influence this marine that decided

29:40 not to shoot the hijackers he found.

29:42 That one will shoot in a certain situation and the other won't.

29:45 I think it has to do with the difference in character.

29:48 It's only my job to eliminate those people because they're dangerous.

29:52 But I have nothing against those Moluccans.

29:54 Not at all.

29:55 I'd rather have a beer with them.

29:57 This is not the view of the marine that encountered Hansina.

30:00 Eliminating the hijackers so that they can be

30:03 handed over to justice, I don't do that.

30:05 You can't attack like that.

30:07 You can't say in advance,

30:08 'Let them try to hit them in the legs.' That's pure nonsense.

30:12 It goes so fast.

30:14 It's about the action-reaction moment.

30:15 If you're not satisfied with what you see in front of you, you shoot again.

30:20 You can't think first.

30:21 Then I stopped for a moment to think.

30:24 Should I shoot them or not?

30:26 Then I thought to myself, 'No, I won't do it.' You can't think first.

30:31 That's not how it works.

30:33 The marines are brought in for questioning.

30:36 The marine that attacked Hansina said he fired on her with his Uzi.

30:40 After all, he had to do it in a split second.

30:43 But someone who is shot and has a weapon himself can still shoot.

30:47 I then fired another burst at Hansina with my Uzi from close range.

30:52 But the autopsy report shows it's not the Uzi fire that killed her.

30:59 She has three wounds made by a revolver.

31:04 They were made from very close by.

31:09 One is through her head.

31:12 In the trial, the state is not able to explain

31:14 where the burn signatures on her body comes from.

31:16 But the prosecution has approved this is an execution.

31:19 And when it comes to Max, who was shot in the front part of the train,

31:24 the marine says in the trial, 'But there's a problem with that statement.

31:29 Max was found lying on the floor with his feet on the bench.

31:33 The fatal bullet wound entered his shoulder.' It is impossible to connect

31:37 this wound to the place the marine said he fired from.

31:41 It also does not correspond to bullets fired from the outside.

31:47 Not by the snipers nor the attack group.

31:51 So how was he killed?

31:53 Then an audio recording is brought to light.

31:56 There is a recording of the marines that were active in the front of the train.

31:59 Second by second, we can follow Marine Group 5.

32:04 The tapes have never been released to the public.

32:10 [Distortion] 'Distortion, look.

32:12 Please, remain seated.

32:15 Yes.

32:15 Two.

32:16 There's a guy in here.

32:20 Go, shoot.

32:22 Shoot that guy.

32:24 Okay, nice.

32:26 Is this one dead?

32:29 Yes, now he is.

32:32 Hey, take it easy.

32:35 Stop.

32:36 Boys.

32:37 Weapons on safe, huh?

32:40 Weapons on safe.

32:42 Weapons on safe.

32:44 Weapons on your back.

32:47 Totally blue.

32:48 I've shot them both to pieces.

32:52 Behind.

32:52 That one was still alive.

32:55 I completely destroyed.' These tapes were never

33:04 meant to be released to the public.

33:06 For the Moluccan community,

33:07 there is extra evidence that executions took place in the train.

33:10 But the defence says these tapes alone prove nothing.

33:13 It's impossible to connect them to a specific

33:15 place or a specific person in the train.

33:18 And this is what the judge also decides.

33:21 Twice, a judge ruled in the favour of the state,

33:24 saying they believed that the marines could not

33:26 know if Max and Hansina were still a threat.

33:29 That it was dark in the train.

33:31 Chaotic.

33:31 It is easy to judge the actions of the marines 50 years later.

33:35 To say what they should have done in those 180 seconds.

33:38 Still, taking that into account, two things are not explained.

33:41 The burn wounds of Hansina and the burn wounds of Max.

33:44 They don't correspond with the official account

33:47 and they don't correspond with what the marines said.

33:49 In the end, this is not the individual

33:52 responsibility of the marines, but of the state.

33:54 It's about the violence a government is willing to use against its own citizens.

33:58 It is up to you to decide if they made the right call.

34:01 Do you think the hijackers were just terrorists and could have expected this?

34:04 Terrorists that threatened lethal violence and that the marines

34:08 acted in stressful conditions with risks to their own lives.

34:11 Or were these people that had no intention of killing anyone?

34:14 That there was a scope to arrest them,

34:18 like the way other hijackers were arrested.

34:20 I don't know what happened on the train, so I can't pass judgement.

34:24 What I do know about is the treatment

34:27 that the Moluccan people received when they came to the Netherlands.

34:30 The way they were housed and neglected,

34:32 that they spent years protesting peacefully without being heard,

34:36 that they felt betrayed by the Dutch government

34:38 who didn't support their wish for an independent state,

34:40 how the government tried very hard to cover

34:42 up the events that happened in the train,

34:45 how they kept family in the dark for decades,

34:47 and that this pain lived on in the communities.

34:51 Certainly the generation of my mother, they were so angry and sad.

34:58 They had so many feelings for it, especially towards van Agt.

35:07 So as soon as he died, it felt like a kind of relief or a kind of justice.

35:18 You can still think it doesn't excuse their actions,

35:19 but maybe it helps you understand why in big parts of the Moluccan

35:23 community people like Max and Hansina are seen not as terrorists,

35:27 but as resistance fighters, giving their life for a free Malaccas.

35:32 The six hijackers that died in the attack lie together in a grave,

35:37 not far from where they were shot.

35:41 On the stone it says 'Lawa Mena Hau Lala,' which I probably pronounced horribly.

35:50 It means something like 'keep going forward

35:54 without putting a step back.' So that's that.

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