Going Home: for the travellers on MH17

Today, the first victims of MH17 came home. A C-130 of the Koninklijke Luchtmacht and a C-17 of the Royal Australian Air Force flew 40 coffins from Kharkov, Ukraine to Eindhoven, The Netherlands. After a sober but impressive ceremony at Eindhoven airport, during which the coffins were carried from the aircraft to the hearses by soldiers, the hearses drove in a convoy from Eindhoven to Hilversum. There, in the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne (barracks), the identification of all victims will take place during the coming months.

The convoy of 40 hearses from Eindhoven to the barracks at Hilversum was escorted by officers of the Koninklijke Marechaussee (military police) on motorcycles. The entire route was kept free of other traffic by the police. During the drive, which is slightly over 100 km, literally many thousands of people were present along the highway, on bridges, on the hard shoulders, in the grass -just everywhere. Flowers where dropped from the bridges, people were applauding….
Vehicles in other lanes of the higways stopped their cars, lorries, motorcycles right there. All those people just wanted to pay their respect to the victims, to ALL victims -wherever they came from. They paid the respect that was denied the victims by the Russian thugs who went rummaging through the wreckage and the personal belongings in the field where their journey ended so abruptly. The disrespecting thugs who denied investigators access.

The entire homecoming, the ceremony at the airport, the coffins being carried from aircraft to hearses by soldiers, the entire drive to the barracks: I watched the full four hours. I thought the victims deserved my bit of attention after being killed in this brutal way and the total lack of respect they suffered lying in the field.

There is a piece of music which seems to feel just right at this moment when all these people are returned to their loved ones. It is the theme of Local Hero, titled Going Home, by Dire straits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAVcVHazYDw

Tillerman.