JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Dutch Twitter avatars go black demanding MH17 bodies' return

Dutch Twitter avatars go black demanding MH17 bodies' return

Tuesday, July 22, 2014, 08:30 GMT+7

Dutch social media users are turning their profile photos black and tweeting the hashtag #BringThemHome as anger mounts that bodies from flight MH17 have not yet been repatriated from Ukraine.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans was one of the first to make his Facebook cover photo black in a sign of mourning.

Since then Twitter and Instagram users in the Netherlands and around the world have posted black screens or ribbons, demanding the 298 dead, 193 of them Dutch, be repatriated from war-torn Ukraine.

"Making my avatar black in memory of all those in #MH17, to show my support for those affected, and to fight to #BringThemHome," tweeted one user.

"Out of respect for the victims of #MH17 my profile pic will be blacked out until all bodies have been brought home. #BringThemHome," tweeted another.

A Dutch-language website and petition bringthemhome.nl has been set up calling for the bodies' swift repatriation and for the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, to prosecute those responsible for the disaster, believed to have been caused by a rebel missile.

There has been growing international outcry that the bodies have not left Ukraine yet.

A refrigerated train carrying many of the bodies left a station near the rebel-held crash site on Monday evening, and was not expected to reach the Dutch coordination centre in loyalist-controlled Kharkiv before Tuesday morning at the earliest.

AFP

More

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Latest news