It’s been 10 years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian separatists over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
But a decade later, the families and victims are still grappling with unimaginable grief – slowly trying to rebuild their shattered lives in the harrowing aftermath.
Disturbing images and disinformation surrounding the tragedy continue to resurface online, making it painfully difficult for the victims’ next of kin to find closure despite the passage of time.
“There are a lot of sick people out there,” said Piet Ploeg, chairman of the MH17 Disaster Foundation, who lost his own brother, sister-in-law, and their young son in the disaster.
“Terrible pictures of the victims at the crash site are posted on social media nearly every day. Some of the body parts … you can recognise who they are. This is very cruel to the next of kin.”
Ploeg told This Week in Asia that his Netherlands-based foundation, which aims to safeguard those left behind, support them in their grief and commemorate the victims, had warned surviving family members not to look at social media.
“It is a heavy thing to see … we are trying to protect them,” he said. “I have asked people to stop making such postings but they don’t listen.”
Even as the victims’ loved ones struggle to heal, the full circumstances behind the downing of the ill-fated flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur remain shrouded in mystery a decade later. The 298 victims hailed from 17 different countries, with Dutch nationals making up the majority at 198 killed. There were also 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians and 10 Britons on board.
Ploeg alleges that Russia has been heavily involved in spreading misinformation, at various times blaming Ukraine or even the CIA for shooting down the plane.
“MH17 next of kin are an unwitting victim of geopolitics,” Ploeg said.
He condemned Moscow’s callous disregard for the suffering of the victims’ loved ones.
MH17 next of kin are an unwitting victim of geopolitics
“They are indifferent to the fate and the pain of the next of kin. Human lives and dignity are not important for Russia,” Ploeg said.
“When you lose your children, you want to know why … it is necessary for the grieving process. Russia has this answer, but they don’t give it.”
The three men convicted in absentia for their involvement in the shooting down of MH17 were not the actual individuals who fired the missile, nor were they the ones who gave the order to bring down the plane, Ploeg claimed.
In November 2022, a Dutch court did find two Russians – Igor Girkin, a former colonel of Russia’s Federal Security Service, and Sergey Dubinskiy, who worked for Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency – as well as Ukrainian separatist Leonid Kharchenko, guilty of mass murder for their roles in the MH17 tragedy.
The three were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay the victims’ families more than €16 million (US$17.4 million). However, since none was present in court to receive their sentences, it is unlikely any of them will actually serve time for the MH17.
While the families and loved ones continue to grapple with the unresolved nature of this devastating loss, a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the downing of MH17 will be held on Wednesday at the National Monument MH17 at Park Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
‘The world’s forgotten about us’
MH17 pilot Captain Wan Amran bin Wan Hussin left behind two young sons when he died in the tragedy.
His eldest, 21-year-old Wan Uzair, is set to join Malaysia Airlines’ engineering team next month. The younger son, 19-year-old Wan Yusuf, dreams of following in his father’s footsteps as a pilot.
But this aspiration remains out of reach for the family.
“It is my son’s dream to become a pilot like his father, but the fees are very expensive,” said Wan Amran’s widow, Mariam Yusof. She and her sons receive little outside assistance – and none of the compensation Mariam believes Russia should provide to MH17 victims’ families.
It has been 10 years but it seems like it was just yesterday
“We don’t get help from anyone. We are self-funded. We are living off some of our savings,” she said. What money the family does receive from the state, under Malaysia’s social security system, is just enough to cover the monthly food bill.
This financial strain means Mariam and her boys cannot afford to visit the MH17 memorial in Amsterdam, where a tree has been planted for every life lost.
“We don’t have the funds to do that … we really want to see the tree planted for my husband,” she said. “It has been 10 years but it seems like it was just yesterday.”
“The world has forgotten about us,” Mariam said, but she, her family and all those left behind can never forget. “I hope there will be justice for us all.”
Slowly letting go
Whenever Enny Nuraheni misses her sister, she visits her Facebook page and memories of the 57-year-old single mother come flooding back. Ninik Yuriani, who died aboard doomed flight MH17, was returning home to Indonesia to celebrate Eid with family when the plane was shot down.
Enny, a former chief photographer for Reuters Jakarta who now acts as a mother figure for Ninik’s daughter, cherishes the photos and videos of her kind-hearted sibling. “My sister may not have been rich, but she had such a rich heart,” she recalled.
Ninik worked as a cashier at a pastry shop in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, often covering the extra cost for hungry students who couldn’t afford more food – or offering to let them pay later.
Though Enny is learning to accept that her sister is gone, the pain never fully subsides.
“I miss her very much,” she told This Week in Asia. “But my pain has started to ease following the birth of my grandchildren.”
Life renews itself and the world’s attention may have moved on, but for those whose loved ones were lost, the wounds of MH17 leave an enduring ache.
