Terror victims commemorated in Brussels exactly 8 years after attacks: “Signal to victims that we have not forgotten them” (Domestic)

At 10:30 am the names of the victims of the attacks of March 22, 2016 were announced. That number has been 35 since last year, after the jury at the assize trial posthumously recognized three additional victims. These were Mathieu Fischer, who died of suicide in 2021 because he had suffered from severe tinnitus since the attack, Shanti De Corte, who was euthanized in May 2022 due to psychological suffering, and Xavier Legrand, who died of cancer in 2017 because he could not continue his treatment due to his injuries.

The names of other Belgian terror victims and those of Belgian victims of terrorist acts abroad were also called out. The names of Thomas Monjoie, the Liège police officer who was murdered on the street in 2022, and Anne-Laure Decadt, who died in the attack in New York in 2017, were among the names heard. The names of people who died in the attacks in the Jewish Museum and in the attack in Brussels in October also echoed through Wetstraat.

After the reading of the names, a minute’s silence was also held and flowers were laid at the monument for the victims of terrorist acts in Wetstraat. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib and Minister of Defense Paul Van Tigchelt, among others, laid a wreath. Afterwards, around 150 attendees, including relatives, victims’ associations, STIB CEO Brieuc de Meeus and Brussels Airport CEO Arnaud Feist, had the opportunity to lay a flower on the monument.

Brussels Airport

Earlier in the day, a commemoration was held at Brussels Airport, where two bombs exploded with a few seconds difference on March 22, 2016 at 7:58 a.m., and at Maalbeek metro station, where the third bomb exploded at 9:11 a.m. The names of the victims were read out, followed by a minute’s silence.

“This is a day when you reflect on the day when your life changed, it has been eight tough years,” Daniëlle Iwens said after the commemoration. On March 22, 2016, she was standing as an airport employee at the check-in desk at Brussels Airport, exactly between the two places where the bombs exploded. “As victims, we have found a new family among ourselves. Every year it is an encounter with a sad undertone, but one that nevertheless gives strength.”

Iwens also feels somewhat let down by the government. “If something were to happen again, I don’t think we’d be there yet. Much can still be done for victims: files and insurance have still not been completed. After eight years, that’s an extra battle you have to fight,” he said. The completed terror trial has also changed little for her. “I found that process a bit cabaret and little consolation. I attached little importance to it.”

For Philippe Vandenberghe, who also worked at Zaventem airport eight years ago, the feeling is different this year, now that there has been a verdict in the terror trial. “There is a legal truth, a historical truth, the facts have been established and penalties have been imposed. Today we want to send a signal to victims and everyone affected that we do not forget them,” said Vandenberghe, who warns that the fight against terror is not yet over. “There is Islamic terrorism, but far-right terrorism is also a threat. We and Europe must continue to fight against terror.”