By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
VIJFHUIZEN, NETHERLANDS (Worthy News) – Grieving families recited the names and ages Wednesday of all 298 passengers and crew killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine 10 years ago in one of the worst terror attacks in civil aviation history.
Most of the victims, some 193 persons, were Dutch. The other people killed came from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Attending the solemn ceremony in Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, relatives, some weeping or choking back tears, named brothers, sisters, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, nieces, and nephews in a 30-minute litany of lost lives.
“It’s a black day,” said Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his daughter and son, Frederique, 19, and Robert-Jan, 18, along with their grandparents. “What’s very important is that we mentioned the name of the loved ones … and it’s very important that we remember them,” he added.
An international investigation concluded that the Buk missile system that destroyed
flight MH17 belonged to the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and was fired from territory controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
The investigation concluded the missile launcher was driven into Ukraine from a Russian military base near the city of Kursk and returned there after the plane was shot down.
The new Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof, a former spy agency chief who had been involved in the investigation, vowed to bring to justice those behind the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Russia has refused to extradite three men convicted by a Dutch court over their role in shooting down the plane.
SUSPENDING WORK
Last year, international investigators suspended their work, saying there was insufficient evidence to prosecute more suspects.
As flags waved at half mast in the Netherlands, Schoof told hundreds of mourners and government dignitaries: “We remain united in our fight for justice. That’s what’s driving us.”
He was speaking at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on national television and held in the memorial park near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
From there, the doomed flight took off on a bright summer’s day on July 17, 2014.
Hours later, the Boeing 777 jet was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine as it passed on a flight line towards Kuala Lumpur. There were no survivors.
“You all know that a conviction is not the same as somebody being behind bars,”
Schoof said this at the ceremony, also attended by Dutch King Willem-Alexander.
“Justice requires us to be prepared for the long haul – and we are. We’ve got the time, the patience, and the perseverance. That’s my message to the guilty and my promise to the relatives.”
EARLY STAGES
A Dutch court in November 2022 sentenced three men in absentia to life imprisonment for their roles in bringing down the plane over separatist-held pro-Russian territory.
It happened during the early stages of the armed conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in a year that Russia also annexed the Crimea Peninsula.
The tensions eventually culminated in Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, sparking a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands and left millions displaced.
“I don’t have to tell you how much the world can change in ten years and how much it has changed,” Schoof said. “And yet, I know that for some of you, on 17 July 2014, time stopped. That for you, since that day, nothing has changed at all – not after a year, not after five years, and not even now.”
How sorely “we wish it were possible to bring back our loved ones, in defiance of the laws of nature,” he added.
“And even though we know, in a corner of our minds, that this will never happen, we still try to get as close as possible to that point through all the things we can do,” he said.
He said the victims will live in memories. And, “By coming together. By speaking their names. And by keeping them alive in our hearts, our memories, and our stories. 298 times.”
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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