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Witness History

Dutch school hostage crisis

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

In 1977 independence activists from Indonesia's Molucca islands took an entire Dutch primary school hostage. They wanted to force the Dutch government to support their freedom fight. They held children and teachers captive for days on end. Geert Kruit, was just nine years old at the time and is still traumatised by what happened to him.

Photo: Geert, a couple of years before the hostage crisis. Show less

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