MH17 mourners unite
Relatives of the 298 victims who died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine have supported each other at an emotional memorial in Amsterdam.
Some 1600 relatives and friends of the dead from 18 countries, including Australia, gathered with the Dutch King and Queen near the airport from where MH17 took off almost four months ago.
“None of us can possibly comprehend how tough it is for the people involved in this,” Australia’s official representative at the service, ambassador Neil Mules, told AAP.
“Any opportunity we can provide for them to share with others who’ve had the same experience and know what they’re going through is very important.
“It’s a way of letting them know they still have everybody’s attention and, in the case of governments, are still high on everyone’s priority list to deal with it.”
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A number of Australian relatives were present at Monday’s memorial held at the vast RAI arena close to Schiphol airport.
Mourners read out the names and ages of all those killed in a ceremony that was broadcast live on Dutch television and radio and marked by musical performances.
Dutch schoolchildren laid flowers for classmates killed as they set out for their summer holidays on board the doomed flight.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, recently returned from Australia where he discussed the ongoing crash investigation, asked “what if the holiday had started a day later?”
“What if the plane had been late?” he continued on Monday.
“What if I wake up and realise it was all just a dream? But there is no ‘What if’. Only the harsh reality of 298 dead.”
Mr Mules spoke with some of the Australians afterwards at an informal gathering where family and friends shared their grief and met members of the Dutch royal family.
Canberra’s man in The Hague said the Netherlands was still reeling in the wake of the July 17 disaster.
“In some ways you can still feel the sense of shock and disbelief and lack of comprehension at what happened and how it could have happened,” Mr Mules said.
“I don’t really think that’s faded.”
The ambassador said the immediate grieving was, however, being replaced with understandable questions “about resolving the outstanding matters”.
That includes identifying all the dead – so far 289 victims have been identified – and establishing who was responsible for shooting down the Boeing 777.
Additional human remains gathered from the crash site earlier this month were flown to the Netherlands on Saturday along with personal belongings.
But investigators may not be able to return anytime soon.
New columns of tanks, trucks and heavy artillery on Monday rumbled towards the pro-Moscow rebel stronghold of Donetsk as fears grew of a return to all-out fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“The circumstances on the ground are pretty precarious at the moment,” Mr Mules acknowledged.
“We have to be very conscious of the dangers on the ground but able also to take advantage of circumstances when they arrive.”