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Malaysian Airlines flight MH17

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was shot down yesterday over eastern Ukraine. By a rocket. A passenger jet carrying 298 innocent people was shot down BY A BLOODY ROCKET. A very sophisticated one too, apparently.

Both Ukraine and Russia deny involvement, point at the pro-Russian separatist movement who are in control in eastern Ukraine as the culprit. Last night, the Americans confirmed that a rocket had  indeed hit the plane. Today they were able to confirm that the rocket that killed 298 innocent people originated from eastern Ukraine.

Two hundred and ninety-eight innocent people shot down. That is the kind of damage one rocket can do in the hands of the wrong people.



While yesterday the confirmed Dutch death toll stood around 90, those figures were revised upwards last night to 154 and again to 189 earlier this afternoon. One hundred and eighty-nine of my people are dead because the Ukrainians and the Russians can't agree on who gets to be in charge of a bit of land.

I am trying to wrap my head around what happened, am trying to find the words to condemn this attack on 189 of my people, on 298 of the world's people, in the strongest possible terms. I don't have the words to describe how I feel. Not yet, not so soon after such a tragedy.

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