Word: moluccas
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Last week, the American media filled in the gaps with stories about Chechen separatists hijacking a passenger airplane, militants carrying on a guerrilla war in Indonesia's Molucca islands, and the Taleban destroying ancient Buddhist statues--all in the name of Islam...
...year Kuwait surpassed the United States in per capita income and Italy beat France in per capita wine consumption. The year Exxon became the world's largest corporation and the Comoro Islands the smallest member of the U.N. It was the year everyone heard of South Molucca...
...trouble began Dec. 2 when six South Moluccans took over a suburban Dutch railroad train; they vowed to hold it and its passengers hostage until the government of The Netherlands promised to help South Molucca Islands obtain their independence from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. Two days later seven other South Moluccans invaded the Indonesian consulate, holding those inside hostage to back up the demands of their fellow terrorists. Three of the prisoners aboard the train were soon shot and killed by their captors, and one man died after jumping from a window of the consulate...
Passionate Cause. The young terrorists were descendants of South Molucca islanders who arrived in Holland a generation ago. Their demand, independence for the South Molucca Islands, was another of those obscure but passionate causes growing out of colonial times and puzzling to Europeans (see following story). As the siege dragged on, the Dutch army erected minimilitary camps around the consulate and the train. After the initial violence, the atmosphere aboard the train lapsed into a tense quiet. "But it was getting very cold," reported an elderly hostage who was released last week. The terrorists refused to allow mechanics to repair...
...They demand the creation of an independent state in the islands that they-or, more typically, their parents-were forced to flee after the Dutch left and the Indonesians took over in 1950. Most of the islanders living in The Netherlands recognize that the goal of an independent South Molucca is scarcely realistic. Johan Manusama, 65, president of the self-styled South Moluccan government-in-exile, regularly appears on television to urge Dutchmen not to punish other South Moluccans for the sins of the young "freedom fighters" holding the hostages...