SIMPLE, though highly poignant, memorial events in the Netherlands, Australia and Ukraine were held on July 17, when a year ago the precious lives of all 298 passengers and crew aboard Flight MH17 were tragically lost when it was blown out of the skies above rebel-held Eastern Ukraine.
In Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, a moving commemoration service for the victims was organised by family members and friends of the victims and their sympathisers.
It was highly emotional when Asmaa Aljuned from Malaysia,
her voice cracking with uncontrollable grief, delivered a parting message that her late husband, co-pilot Ahmed Hakimi, never got to tell passengers on that ill-fated flight: “On behalf of Malaysia Airlines and the rest of the crew, once again we would like to thank you for flying with us. Thank you and have a nice day.”
The more than 1,300 people gathered there gave Asmaa a standing ovation.
The names of all 298 who perished were read out by the victims’ families and friends, as younger family members rendered songs and music, and read poems appropriate to the occasion.
Flags on all government buildings were at half-mast. The Netherlands was the hardest-hit nation in the MH17 disaster as 196 of the victims were Dutch nationals.
On the same day, outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, hundreds of grieving relatives and friends of the 40 victims who called Australia home gathered for a solemn service to remember all who had lost their lives on that flight and to pray for comfort for their loved ones, wherever they were.
The service included the unveiling of a plaque, bearing the names of the Australian victims, set in soil that had been collected from the very place in Ukraine where the wreckage of the aircraft and bodies of the victims were found.
On that day, dozens of residents of Hrabove, the Ukrainian village near where the airliner landed, marched to the crash site amid the dangers of the civil war.
The procession mainly consisted of women and children who carried icons and chanted the Orthodox liturgy.
They joined about 100 other people, who carried flags from the countries of the victims, to stand by a small stone at the crash site that bore a plaque saying: “To the memory of 298 dead, innocent victims of the civil war” — referring to the current conflict between Russian separatists and Ukraine.
Few, if any, of the people at these ceremonies focused on bringing the perpetrators of the tragedy to justice. That was not why they had gathered.
Asmaa Aljuned summed up those feelings when she said: “We do not know how much we love a person until we lose them.”
Thank you, Holland, Australia and Ukraine, for standing with all who truly grieve for those we lost.
Rueben Dudley, Petaling Jaya, Selangor