The Netherlands will hold a national ceremony here Monday to commemorate the victims of the MH17 flight air crash in east Ukraine.
The remains of Flight MH17 (Image: telegraph.co.uk)
The national memorial is set to start at 1:00 p.m. local time (1200GMT) at the conference center RAI in Amsterdam. Over 1,600 relatives of the victims will be present, including dozens from abroad.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, other members of the Royal family and the government, parliamentarians, foreign ambassadors and mayors of municipalities will also attend the ceremony.
On two high walls in front of the ceremony hall, all victims' names are shown. Their relatives can leave flowers under the walls.
The ceremony is designed according to the relatives' wishes and ideas. Three survivors will take the floor and one survivor will read out a poem at the ceremony. An important part of the memorial, all 298 victim names will be mentioned at the ceremony.
On behalf of the government Rutte will make a speech. A minute of silence will be observed. The official program will end at around 2:30 p.m. (1330GMT), followed by an informal gathering until 4:30 p.m.(1530GMT). At the end of the ceremony photographs of the victims will be shown on a wall.
The Dutch national channel NOS will broadcast the commemoration live on radio and television, while other media have limited or no access.
In other parts of the country, minor commemorations, different in every municipality, will be held.
All main buildings of the central government fly the Dutch flag at half-mast, and municipalities, provinces and diplomatic missions were invited to follow this flag instruction.
The Malaysia Airlines plane MH17 was shot down in Ukraine's war-torn east region on July 17 this year, killing 298 people, including 196 Dutch citizens, and making it one of the deadliest disasters in the Dutch history.
(Source: Xinhua)
