The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sri Lanka observed Remembrance Day today with a solemn ceremony held at the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Jawatta Cemetery in Colombo, honouring Dutch nationals who lost their lives during wartime and are buried in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
The ceremony was led by Acting Ambassador Iwan Rutjens, who laid floral tributes at the war memorial and individual graves in remembrance of the fallen. This was followed by a two-minute silence, marking a moment of respect for those who perished in war.<\/p>\n
According to the Embassy, a total of 36 Dutch nationals who died during the Second World War are buried across various locations in Sri Lanka, including Colombo, Kandy, and Trincomalee. These burial sites are maintained as part of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission network.<\/p>\n
Remembrance Day has been observed annually in the Netherlands on May 4 since the end of World War II. Since 1961, the commemoration has expanded to honour all Dutch victims of war, including more than 102,000 Dutch Jews and members of other persecuted communities, as well as individuals who lost their lives in later conflicts and international peacekeeping missions.<\/p>\n
The national ceremony in the Netherlands is traditionally held at Dam Square in Amsterdam, attended by the Dutch King, government officials, and members of parliament. Simultaneous memorial events are also conducted in cities and towns across the country.<\/p>\n
At 8:00 p.m. local time in the Netherlands, the entire nation observes two minutes of silence as a unified act of remembrance for all those who died in war, reflecting the country\u2019s longstanding commitment to honoring its war victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sri Lanka observed Remembrance Day today with a solemn ceremony held at the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Jawatta Cemetery in Colombo, honouring Dutch nationals who lost their lives during wartime and are buried in Sri Lanka. The ceremony was led by Acting Ambassador Iwan …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}