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Planes With MH17 Victims Arrive In Netherlands

July 23, 2014
by RFE/RL

Two military planes carrying 40 coffins bearing victims of a downed Malaysian airliner have landed in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven.

The planes were met on July 23 by some 1,000 relatives of the victims, Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and representatives of the other countries that lost citizens on the flight.

Flags of the 11 countries that lost citizens to the crash flew at half-mast at the airport, and a minute's silence was observed in the Netherlands.

The bodies are to be transferred to a military base southeast of Amsterdam, where forensics experts will identify them.

Earlier at a ceremony at Kharkiv airport, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman said the downing of the plane was an 'inhumane terrorist act' carried out with help from Russia.

All 298 passengers and crew were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine on July 17.

U.S. officials say the plane was probably shot down by Russian-backed separatists.

The Netherlands is holding a day of mourning for the victims, 193 of whom were Dutch.

All the bodies that have been retrieved from the crash site are expected to be flown to the Netherlands by July 25.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said it is unclear how many bodies remained at the crash site, which is in Ukrainian territory held by separatist rebels.

Dutch officials have said a refrigerated train brought some 200 bodies to Kharkiv on July 22 after the separatists allowed them to be transported to the government-controlled city.

The U.K. government confirmed the plane's two flight-data recorders had been delivered to British investigators for expert analysis.

The separatists handed over the socalled black-box recorders after stalling for days.

Dutch investigators said on July 23 that they had no evidence the airliner's black-box voice recorder had been tampered with.

The Dutch Safety Board said the voice recorder 'was damaged but the part that contains the data was intact,' and that there was not 'any evidence or indication' that it had been manipulated.

International investigators had also accused the separatists of tampering with the evidence.

Reports said some parts of the plane had been moved with heavy equipment and other parts had been cut into pieces.

West: Russian Missile, Fired By Rebels

U.S. officials on July 22 said the Malaysian jet was likely downed by the separatists 'by mistake.'

The officials said no direct link to Russia had been found.

They added that the plane was likely downed by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fired by the rebels.

While admitting that there was no link to the Kremlin so far, the officials said Russia had 'created the conditions' for the downing of the plane.

European Union foreign ministers on July 22 agreed to widen sanctions on Russia after the Malaysian passenger plane was shot down.

The EU said broader sanctions would be imposed if Russia did not change its course and 'cut the flow of fighters and material' going across the border into eastern Ukraine.

EU envoys will discuss the wider target list for existing sanctions on July 24.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and BBC

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/mh17-bodies- leave-for-netherlands-ukraine/25467273.html

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Planes With MH17 Victims Arrive In Netherlands