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7/21/14, 10:3utch Grief Abounds, but Mourning Stays Local - NYTimes.com

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EUROPE | ROTTERDAM JOURNAL | NYT NOW

Dutch Grief Abounds, but Mourning Stays Local

By THOMAS ERDBRINK JULY 20, 2014

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 acrossthis small country, people interviewed on television were trying to address their

grief and growing anger over a tragedy that has propelled theever compromise-

seeking Dutch into the hard world of geopolitics and war.

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 countrys 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 countrysnew king, Willem-Alexander, who took the throne in 2013, has

been noticeably silent. Though under the Dutch Constitutionthe king isrequired

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
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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, Europes 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 empathydisplayed 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 governments 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
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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 countrys 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 citys

port, compared it to the attacks of Sept. 11. Its the same situation as when theplanes 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

planes wreckage.

Michael vant Hoff, a chef and dietitian, said his government needed to apply

more political pressure. Im 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 everybodys 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
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channels the sincere frustrations, they could backfire and it can become

uncontrollable.

Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from The Hague, and Jasper Juinen from Rotterdam.

A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2014, on page A8 of the New York edition with the

headline: Dutch Grief Abounds, but Mourning Stays Local.

2014 The New York Times Company
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dutch grief abounds, but mourning stays local - nytimes.com

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