Can the Train Ever Be Stopped Again? Developments in the Moluccan Community in the Netherlands before and after the Hijackings

brief ceremony of prayers, speeches, and singing culminates in raising the flag of a country which today exists only in the hearts of the participants. Immediately after the ceremony, the people board hired buses, climb onto trains, or pile into private cars to begin their annual pilgrimage to the Houtrusthallen exhibition center in The Hague, the political capital of the Netherlands. On this day, they commemorate the 35th Anniversary of the proclamation of independence of the Republic of South Moluccas (Republik Maluku Selatan, generally referred to as RMS), while simultaneously lamenting their thirty-fourth year of exile in the Netherlands.