Dutch gov't has spent over € 166 million on MH17 aftermath so far

The Dutch government has spent over 166 million euros on the aftermath of the MH17 disaster so far, the Court of Audit reported on Thursday. This includes expenditure on crisis management, repatriation of the victims, the investigation into the perpetrators, and bringing them to justice, among many other things, the court said. It does not include the costs of citizens and companies. “The suffering of the relatives of the passengers who died on the plane cannot be expressed in monetary terms,” the Court of Audit said.

The government asked the Court of Audit to inventory its expenditure from the moment that a Russian BUK missile shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, killing all 298 people on board the plane, including 196 Dutch. The government wants to use the inventory in legal proceedings to hold Russia liable for all costs arising from the attack.

The cost inventory runs from the day of the disaster until the end of 2022. The Court of Audit will update it annually. It includes costs incurred by 10 Ministries, 10 public institutions, two provinces, 59 municipalities, and two joint schemes.

Immediately after the disaster, the government started with crisis management. That cost a total of 8.6 million euros. Repatriating the victims - bringing them from Ukraine to the Netherlands - cost 22.6 million euros. Identifying the bodies cost a further 9 million euros.

The biggest cost item was the investigation into the crash by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team’s investigation into the perpetrators. Together, those investigations cost 53 million euros. The criminal proceedings against the first four suspects cost another 34.1 million euros.

The Dutch government also contributed 8.1 million euros to commemorations, 5.7 million euros on international procedures and diplomacy, and 800,000 euros on care for surviving relatives. Another 1.6 million euros went to “other costs,” including archiving MH17 information, the investigation into flying over conflict zones, and this cost inventory by the Court of Audit, among other things.

The Court of Audit stressed that more costs have been incurred since the end of 2022, and more will come. Surviving relatives will continue to need care and support, there will continue to be commemorations and memorials, and more legal proceedings may follow, among other things. The Court of Audit will, therefore, update this inventory annually.