Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

FREEMEN • 201On 4 December, seven other members of the same group seized theIndonesian consulate in Amsterdam, also taking as hostages severalschoolchildren within a classroom in the building. Three consularemployees escaped by lowering themselves from the second story,but a fourth fell to his death. By 19 December 1975, all the hostagesin this siege were also released.On 23 May 1977 another passenger train hijacking and hostageseizure took place in Assen in which 13 Moluccans seized a trainwith 85 passengers. This siege lasted 19 days. In addition to callsfor Moluccan independence, these terrorists also demanded the freeingof their comrades who had been tried and jailed for the Beilenincident. On 11 June, Dutch Marines stormed the train, killing all theterrorists as well as two passengers who had bolted when the shootingbegan. On the same day the Assen train was seized, four othermembers of the group seized a primary school in Bovinsmilde, taking105 children and six teachers hostage. All of the children and onesick teacher were released by 26 May. Dutch Marines stormed theschool on 11 June, seizing the four terrorists and freeing the remainingteachers.In July 1975 several Moluccans were convicted for conspiracy tokidnap Queen Juliana and other members of the Dutch royal family.These incidents provoked anti-Moluccan backlashes among theDutch population, while the killings of the terrorists also aggravatedanti-Dutch sentiment among the exiled Moluccan community. Sincethese incidents, the South Moluccan groups have ceased to be involvedin terrorism.FREEMEN. Antistate right-wing U.S. domestic extremists opposedto the current monetary, banking, and taxation system who formpart of the right-wing extremist movement in the United Statesassociated with the militia movement. The Freemen of Montana,who were besieged by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) for 81 days outside the small town of Jordan, Montana, arejust one of several groups scattered throughout the United Statesthat call themselves Freemen. Although the media called them theMilitia of Montana, these groups were not identical but had overlappingmemberships. The Militia of Montana group is led by JohnTrochman, who played no role in the Freeman siege outside Jordan,Montana.