Approximately one hundred people took part on Wednesday in the commemoration service in Dendermonde for the massacre carried out by Kim De Gelder, perpetrated 10 years ago in a crèche within this locality in East Flanders. The Mayor, Piet Buyse, and the acting governor, Didier Detollenaere, took part in the event together with victims’ loved ones and representatives from the emergency services.
The brief ceremony began at 11 a.m. “The children and those looking after them were all innocent,” commented the mayor. “Suddenly all of these innocent people were massacred with a knife.” He added, “Although it is ten years to the day, it is as if it were yesterday. Nobody will ever forget this day.”
Despite the cold, around 100 sympathisers and loved ones made the trip. “So as to make it known that we still stand together, and are deeply saddened.”
Kim De Gelder, 20 at the time of the incident, acknowledged that he was guilty of killing a seventy-year old woman in Vrasene, Elza Van Raemdonck, and of assassinating two babies and a nursery nurse aged 54, Marita Blindeman. He is also guilty of 22 attempted assassinations of the other people present in the Fabeltjesland crèche at the time of the attack.
The Brussels Times
