Worshippers at church services across the Netherlands on Sunday prayed for the victims of the Ukraine air disaster and their next of kin, as anger built over the separatist rebels’ hindering of the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
At the St. Vitus church in the central city of Hilversum, Father Julius Dresme summed up the nation’s pain.
“It’s terrible, and everybody’s hearts are bleeding and crying,” he said. “And it makes [people] restless and people feel sorrow, and feel a little anger but mostly sadness, confusion.”
At the Amsterdam student rowing club Skoll, a single member sat weeping on Sunday as she wrote in a condolence book for two members of the club who died, Karlijn Keijzer and her boyfriend Laurens van der Graaff.
Amid the grieving, Prime Minister Mark Rutte is pushing for Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his influence over the rebels in eastern Ukraine to ensure a full investigation into the tragedy that killed 298 passengers and crew, including 193 Dutch citizens. Mr. Rutte angrily condemned the rebels on Saturday evening for interfering with the wreckage and bodies in Ukraine.
Code being retired The airline also announced it was “retiring” the flight code 17 of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flights “out of respect for our crew and passengers of the mentioned flight code” and replacing it from July 25 with the flight code 19.
Families of Malaysians aboard MH17 urged authorities on Sunday to bring back the remains of their loved ones amid concerns over access to the crash site.
Of the people aboard, 43 were from Malaysia, including the 15 crew members.
Zulkifli Abdul Rahman, the brother-in-law of MH17 chief flight attendant Azrina Yakob, said the family wanted to get the mother-of-two’s remains to bury her. “Her mother’s wish is for the remains to be brought back so that we can have a proper burial so that over time the children can visit the tombstone,” the 54-year-old project manager told AFP at the family’s home near Kuala Lumpur airport.“At this current moment I hope the world can assist the families to bring back the remains.”
Azrina and her husband’s wedding portrait hung on a wall of the entrance hall to the single-storey house. In the living room, a model plane hung from the ceiling with three others, including a Malaysia Airlines jet, sitting on a cabinet shelf.
Zulkifli said Azrina and her family had planned to go to northern Malaysia to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, Islam’s biggest festival, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan.
Azrina (41) had been working for Malaysia Airlines for about 20 years.
