ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — The Dutch public television station NOS broadcast solemn images on Sunday of mourners gathering at half-empty churches and at the homes of families who died when the Malaysia Airlines jet on which they were traveling was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
From across this small country, people interviewed on television were trying to address their grief and growing anger over a tragedy that has propelled the ever compromise-seeking Dutch into the hard world of geopolitics and war.
Friends of Laurens van der Graaff met at Café de Zwart in Amsterdam on Sunday to share memories of him.Teacher and Restaurateurs Were Flight 17 VictimsJULY 20, 2014 Pro-Russian separatists standing guard Sunday at the crash site. Bodies of victims were in refrigerated cars of a train that, for the time being, was going nowhere.
Bodies From Malaysia Airlines Flight Are Stuck in Ukraine, Held Hostage Over Distrust
JULY 20, 2014 Secretary of State John Kerry stopped short of saying Russia provided the missile unit that downed a Malaysia Airlines jet.Kerry Says Russia Trained Separatists to Use Antiaircraft Missiles
JULY 20, 2014 As Anger Rises Over Crash, Malaysian Government Is Reluctant to Assign BlameJULY 20, 2014 But as the deaths of almost 200 of its citizens aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur have struck the Netherlands with deep sorrow, its leaders have made no effort to channel the country’s grief. No day of public mourning has been declared; nobody is wearing black, not even on television; flags flying at half-staff are rarely seen.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte has repeatedly expressed his anger and sadness over the event in which pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine most likely shot down the plane with an antiaircraft missile, and he has been working tirelessly in an international effort to retrieve the bodies. But he has not sat down with any of the relatives of the victims. The country’s new king, Willem-Alexander, who took the throne in 2013, has been noticeably silent.
Though under the Dutch Constitution the king is required to get the permission of the cabinet for important decisions, he has not addressed the nation in a televised speech, but did sign a book of condolences. On Monday he was scheduled to meet privately with relatives of victims. “None of our leaders are fostering any sense of public spirit,” said Bas Heijne, a columnist for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
“They come across as cold and insecure.” Other commentators were more forgiving, saying that the Dutch tend to save their emotions until the full scale of the problem is clear.
“Like during previous disasters our royal family will wait a couple of days before they act,” said Marc van der Linden, a journalist and expert on the royal family.
While they were waiting, people across the Netherlands partied and danced during scheduled music festivals and summer celebrations, as if nothing had happened in a combat zone almost 2,000 miles away. Here in Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest port, organizers said that around 10,000 people attended the Crazy Sexy Cool outdoor festival where electronic music fans paid the equivalent of $35 to dance to the beats of about 30 different acts.
Still, even some of the partygoers were surprised by the lack of empathy displayed at the festival. “I was expecting they would say something about what has happened,” said Elena Vasilikos, 20, referring to the crash, which killed all 298 people aboard.
“But there was nothing.” Other weekend festivals here and in many other cities in the Netherlands went on as planned. “We have not canceled any of the events, as there is no day of national mourning,” said Lennart de Jong, a spokesman for the Rotterdam mayor, Ahmad Aboutaleb.
“The organizers are wearing black ribbons, so we have adapted the event.” On social media, the preferred public platform for the Dutch to express their anger, often anonymously, reactions to the government’s lack of action have been livid. Many online commentators have been calling for Dutch troops to intervene to safeguard the bodies of their countrymen in the custody of rebels in Ukraine.
“Where is our minister of defense?” asked Casper van Nierop on his Facebook page. “Nearly 200 Dutch have been killed. Send in the paratroopers and commandos to secure the site. Why is nothing happening?” Another Facebook user, Willem Vissers, wrote on his page: “When is our government announcing an official national day of mourning? Nothing counts more than solidarity with the families of 193 innocent Dutch victims,” he wrote.
“I am outraged that ‘party life’ seems to continue as normal here in Holland.” On Sunday, Mr. Rutte said again that he has been talking by telephone with world leaders, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who many people here see as the real culprit behind the attack.
During a news conference Mr. Rutte indicated that there would be no military intervention by the Netherlands, saying his primary focus was to bring the bodies home. In the country’s usually sleepy seat of government, The Hague, people were in shock, they said. On beaches, in restaurants and aboard public transportation the deaths of so many of their compatriots were widely being discussed by Dutch citizens.
Joppe Ingebord, 61, sitting down to a fish lunch at a restaurant at the city’s port, compared it to the attacks of Sept. 11. “It’s the same situation as when the planes went into the twin towers,” she said. “We are very upset that they took so much from the crash site,” she added, referring to the news that the rebels and others in Ukraine who control access to the crash site had sifted through the plane’s wreckage. Michael van’t Hoff, a chef and dietitian, said his government needed to apply more political pressure.
“I’m only thinking of the victims,” he said. “Everybody is thinking about this every day,” said Sanne Vermeij, 22, a surfing instructor, adding: “It hit so close to everybody’s home.” Standing on the Scheveningen boardwalk in The Hague, Ms. Vermeij explained how her friends’ Facebook feeds were full of stories about the crash victims.
“Everybody knows somebody who had a friend on that plane,” she said. In recent years there have been explosions of public emotion in the Netherlands:
In 2002, after the popular politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated, angry mobs took to the streets.
In 2004, there was widespread anger at a gathering on the Dam Square in Amsterdam when the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed by a Muslim extremist.
When the popular Dutch folk singer Andre Hazes died the same year, thousands came together in mourning. “Right now people are sad — and angry too,” said Alexander Pechtold, leader of the liberal political party, D66, one of the largest opposition parties. “If no one channels the sincere frustrations, they could backfire and it can become uncontrollable.”
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From across this small country, people interviewed on television were trying to address their grief and growing anger over a tragedy that has propelled the ever compromise-seeking Dutch into the hard world of geopolitics and war.
Friends of Laurens van der Graaff met at Café de Zwart in Amsterdam on Sunday to share memories of him.Teacher and Restaurateurs Were Flight 17 VictimsJULY 20, 2014 Pro-Russian separatists standing guard Sunday at the crash site. Bodies of victims were in refrigerated cars of a train that, for the time being, was going nowhere.
Bodies From Malaysia Airlines Flight Are Stuck in Ukraine, Held Hostage Over Distrust
JULY 20, 2014 Secretary of State John Kerry stopped short of saying Russia provided the missile unit that downed a Malaysia Airlines jet.Kerry Says Russia Trained Separatists to Use Antiaircraft Missiles
JULY 20, 2014 As Anger Rises Over Crash, Malaysian Government Is Reluctant to Assign BlameJULY 20, 2014 But as the deaths of almost 200 of its citizens aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur have struck the Netherlands with deep sorrow, its leaders have made no effort to channel the country’s grief. No day of public mourning has been declared; nobody is wearing black, not even on television; flags flying at half-staff are rarely seen.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte has repeatedly expressed his anger and sadness over the event in which pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine most likely shot down the plane with an antiaircraft missile, and he has been working tirelessly in an international effort to retrieve the bodies. But he has not sat down with any of the relatives of the victims. The country’s new king, Willem-Alexander, who took the throne in 2013, has been noticeably silent.
Though under the Dutch Constitution the king is required to get the permission of the cabinet for important decisions, he has not addressed the nation in a televised speech, but did sign a book of condolences. On Monday he was scheduled to meet privately with relatives of victims. “None of our leaders are fostering any sense of public spirit,” said Bas Heijne, a columnist for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
“They come across as cold and insecure.” Other commentators were more forgiving, saying that the Dutch tend to save their emotions until the full scale of the problem is clear.
“Like during previous disasters our royal family will wait a couple of days before they act,” said Marc van der Linden, a journalist and expert on the royal family.
While they were waiting, people across the Netherlands partied and danced during scheduled music festivals and summer celebrations, as if nothing had happened in a combat zone almost 2,000 miles away. Here in Rotterdam, Europe’s biggest port, organizers said that around 10,000 people attended the Crazy Sexy Cool outdoor festival where electronic music fans paid the equivalent of $35 to dance to the beats of about 30 different acts.
Still, even some of the partygoers were surprised by the lack of empathy displayed at the festival. “I was expecting they would say something about what has happened,” said Elena Vasilikos, 20, referring to the crash, which killed all 298 people aboard.
“But there was nothing.” Other weekend festivals here and in many other cities in the Netherlands went on as planned. “We have not canceled any of the events, as there is no day of national mourning,” said Lennart de Jong, a spokesman for the Rotterdam mayor, Ahmad Aboutaleb.
“The organizers are wearing black ribbons, so we have adapted the event.” On social media, the preferred public platform for the Dutch to express their anger, often anonymously, reactions to the government’s lack of action have been livid. Many online commentators have been calling for Dutch troops to intervene to safeguard the bodies of their countrymen in the custody of rebels in Ukraine.
“Where is our minister of defense?” asked Casper van Nierop on his Facebook page. “Nearly 200 Dutch have been killed. Send in the paratroopers and commandos to secure the site. Why is nothing happening?” Another Facebook user, Willem Vissers, wrote on his page: “When is our government announcing an official national day of mourning? Nothing counts more than solidarity with the families of 193 innocent Dutch victims,” he wrote.
“I am outraged that ‘party life’ seems to continue as normal here in Holland.” On Sunday, Mr. Rutte said again that he has been talking by telephone with world leaders, including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who many people here see as the real culprit behind the attack.
During a news conference Mr. Rutte indicated that there would be no military intervention by the Netherlands, saying his primary focus was to bring the bodies home. In the country’s usually sleepy seat of government, The Hague, people were in shock, they said. On beaches, in restaurants and aboard public transportation the deaths of so many of their compatriots were widely being discussed by Dutch citizens.
Joppe Ingebord, 61, sitting down to a fish lunch at a restaurant at the city’s port, compared it to the attacks of Sept. 11. “It’s the same situation as when the planes went into the twin towers,” she said. “We are very upset that they took so much from the crash site,” she added, referring to the news that the rebels and others in Ukraine who control access to the crash site had sifted through the plane’s wreckage. Michael van’t Hoff, a chef and dietitian, said his government needed to apply more political pressure.
“I’m only thinking of the victims,” he said. “Everybody is thinking about this every day,” said Sanne Vermeij, 22, a surfing instructor, adding: “It hit so close to everybody’s home.” Standing on the Scheveningen boardwalk in The Hague, Ms. Vermeij explained how her friends’ Facebook feeds were full of stories about the crash victims.
“Everybody knows somebody who had a friend on that plane,” she said. In recent years there have been explosions of public emotion in the Netherlands:
In 2002, after the popular politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated, angry mobs took to the streets.
In 2004, there was widespread anger at a gathering on the Dam Square in Amsterdam when the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed by a Muslim extremist.
When the popular Dutch folk singer Andre Hazes died the same year, thousands came together in mourning. “Right now people are sad — and angry too,” said Alexander Pechtold, leader of the liberal political party, D66, one of the largest opposition parties. “If no one channels the sincere frustrations, they could backfire and it can become uncontrollable.”
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