News / EU

Relatives of MH17 crash victims attend memorial services on one-year anniversary

Friday, 17 July 2015 1:16 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 17 July 2015 1:19 PM ]

Family members and friends of victims gather in front of a ‘hedge of compassion,’ made of thousands of dolls, during a commemoration ceremony for the people who died in the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, in Nieuwegein, near the central city of Utrecht, the Netherlands, on July 17, 2015. (© AFP)

The families and friends of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash, which went down in the troubled eastern Ukraine a year ago, have joined emotional memorials in the Netherlands to pay tribute to their loved ones.

On Friday, flags flew at half-mast across the Netherlands as some 2,000 gathered in a sober and serene setting to mourn the ill-fated plane’s 298 passengers and crew members, the majority of whom were Dutch nationals.

The victims lost their lives on July 17 last year when their Boeing 777 airliner flying en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was reportedly downed over east Ukraine during heavy fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russia forces.

“I still think about it every day,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the NOS public broadcaster ahead of the service.

Elsewhere in the Australian capital city of Canberra, the relatives of the 38 Australians who were on board the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and were killed in the crash grieved at a ceremony on the one-year anniversary of the incident.

During the ceremony, Asutarlian Prime Minister Tony Abbott unveiled a plaque in memory of those killed.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (C-R) and his wife Margaret prepare to lay a wreath for the Australian victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at a commemoration ceremony outside the Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, July 17, 2015. (© AFP)

Meanwhile, Australia and other countries that lost citizens in the tragic event want the UN Security Council to set up an international tribunal into the incident before a Dutch report on the issue is out.

“We don’t want to politicize and wait until the report comes out and starts pointing the finger or blaming certain parties,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. “Then people react because of the findings of the report.”

Crashing into mystery

The Netherlands is leading the recovery of the victims’ remains, investigating the cause of the crash, as well as seeking to track down the perpetrators and put them on trial.

Kiev and pro-Russia forces operating in Ukraine’s east have accused each other of firing a surface-to-air missile at the passenger plane.

In September 2014, a report released by the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) said that the Malaysian Boeing-777 crash was the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that struck it from the outside.

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