Former CDA Prime Minister Dries van Agt died last Monday at the age of 93. Knowledge center The Rights Forum reports this on behalf of his family. Van Agt was Prime Minister from 1977 to 1982 and Minister of Justice from 1971 to 1977.
In the latter role, Van Agt was politically responsible for ending the train hijacking by a group of Moluccans at the Punt on June 11, 1977. Six hijackers and two hostages were killed in this action. The aim of the Moluccans was to force the Dutch government to take action to enable the formation of the South Moluccan state.
Van Agt was leader of the crisis team that had to put an end to the hijacking. Years later, he was accused of ordering the execution of the hijackers, but he himself denied this. “The order was to kill as few people. Preferably no one, but if there is no other option, then it will have to be done. We certainly did not give the instruction that the hijackers had to die. Get out of here,” said the CDA member in 2016 at Nieuwsuur.
Moluccan relatives sued the Dutch State, but the court did not hold the State liable for the deaths of the Moluccan hijackers. There would be no evidence that an order was given to kill the hijackers.
During the hostage taking of a primary school in Bovensmilde, the slogan ‘Van Agt, we want to live’ went around the world. Primary school children chanted this after South Moluccan youth took the school with 105 students and five teachers hostage. After a few days the children were released.
Images from 1977 after the hostage crisis in Bovensmilde. Text continues below the video.