Dutch royals unveil ‘living memorial’ to MH17 victims
Three years after Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile over Ukraine, more than 2,000 relatives gathered yesterday to unveil a “living memorial” to their loved ones.
The families planted 298 trees in the shape of a green ribbon, one for each of the victims who died on board the Malaysia Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands joined government and international officials at a ceremony to dedicate the memorial in the park of Vijfhuizen, close to Schiphol airport.
The names of passengers and crew killed in the disaster will be read out by their families, and 17 local children will lay flowers.
While most of the victims were Dutch, there were 17 nationalities on board, including Australians, Britons, Malaysians and Indonesians.
“A tree symbolises hope and the future in many cultures,” the victims’ families association said. “We not only want to honour the MH17 victims, we also want to create a place where everyone can keep their memories of the 298 passengers alive.”
Funded by donations, the project was designed by artist Ronald A Westerhuis and landscape architect Robbert de Koning after it was chosen from three proposals by relatives in 2015.
As the third anniversary of the tragedy dawns, no suspects have been arrested although it was announced this month that any trials would be held in the Netherlands.
About 100 people are wanted in connection with the tragedy, after Dutch-led investigations concluded the plane was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile transported from Russia into areas of Ukraine held by pro-Russian rebels.
The trees in the memorial will be surrounded by sunflowers, which bloom in July, and will “radiate a golden glow” over the trees, the foundation said.
The flowers also represent “the sunflower fields in eastern Ukraine where some parts of the plane wreckage were found”.
Each of the trees bears the name of one of the victims. And at the heart of the forest of 11 different tree varieties is a steel memorial shaped like an eye, looking at the skies.