#BringThemHome: Dutch Twitter avatars go black demanding MH17 bodies’ return

THE HAGUE  (AFP) – 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.