Juliana, signatory to RI independence, dies

Juliana, signatory to RI independence, dies

Agencies, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Former Dutch queen Juliana, who presided over the dismantling of
the centuries-old Dutch empire, including granting Indonesia's
independence, during her 31-year reign, died on Saturday. She was
94.

Juliana, who has been away from public life for years, passed
away shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, the government announced.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called Juliana "a mother
to us all".

Princess Juliana, who gave up the title of queen when she
abdicated in favor of her oldest daughter Beatrix in 1980, spent
the last decade of her life in seclusion, too ill and mentally
feeble to appreciate the adoration of her people.

The Royal Palace was protective of her privacy, but she was
known to suffer heart rhythm problems and to have been under 24-
hour surveillance by two nurses. Her husband, Prince Bernhard,
admitted in a televised interview in June 2001 that Juliana could
no longer recognize members of her family.

Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina, Princess of Orange-
Nassau, was 39 when she acceded the throne on Sept. 4, 1948.

Through her more modern, down-to-earth ways, she brought the
monarchy closer to the people than under her mother, Queen
Wilhelmina, who had stepped down after a reign of 50 years.
Juliana was known to pour the tea herself for her visitors and
ride her bike on the streets near her palaces.

One of the major tests at the outset of her reign was the
Independence War in the Dutch East Indies, which was considered
an economic disaster for the Netherlands and spurred her mother
to abdicate after 50 years on the throne.

Juliana signed the papers that relinquished Dutch control of
Indonesia on Dec. 27, 1949, at Dam Palace in Amsterdam.

As queen, she was active in social issues, frequently visiting
hospitals, old age homes and nurseries. She spent days in the
southern provinces of Zeeland and South Holland when they were
inundated by devastating floods in early 1953.

During the turbulent 1960s, she watched the youthful social
unrest that decades later evolved into such landmark legislation
as legalized homosexual marriages, prostitution and euthanasia.

She faced several crises during her reign, including the
blindness of her youngest daughter Christina, the conversion of
her second oldest daughter Irene to Catholicism in 1963 and a
bribery scandal involving her husband, German-born Prince
Bernhard.