(Sunday, March 21, 2004)

Former Dutch queen Juliana died Saturday at 94 of pneumonia.

As a princess, Juliana spent the war years in Ottawa where she fostered enduring ties with Canada and who later oversaw the postwar dismantling of the centuries-old Dutch empire during a 32-year reign.

Juliana, who gave up public life in 1999 due to her weakening condition, died in her sleep of a lung infection at the royal palace in Soestdijk, about 50 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende cancelled foreign travel plans and declared a national day of mourning for the popular monarch he called “a mother to us all.”

Several newspapers printed special free editions and national television channels broadcast hour after hour of special coverage.

Balkenende ordered flags on public buildings be flown at half mast until Juliana’s remains are interred at the ancestral burial chamber in Delft. Juliana will lie in state at the palace of Noordeinde in The Hague for several days next week before the funeral, probably on March 31.