UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-CRASH SITE Pro-Russian separatists lead memorial service at MH17 crash site

Record ID: 146814

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-CRASH SITE Pro-Russian separatists lead memorial service at MH17 crash site
  • Date: 17th July 2015
  • Summary: MEN LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2ZO62L9ON9ITFZ92VFOWBT6S3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The rebel-held east Ukrainian village where a Malaysian airliner was shot down honoured the 298 victims at a simple ceremony on Friday (July 17) as calls grew for an international tribunal to prosecute those who brought it down.
    After a church service in the village of Hrabove, residents joined a procession across an open field to a gravestone placed near the charred area where twisted metal and body parts came crashing down on July 17 last year.
    "To the memory of the dead - 298 innocent victims of civil war," was written on the gravestone, where a Russian Orthodox priest and a mullah said prayers.
    About 300 people brought flowers and flags of the countries the victims came from, some with black ribbons attached, and released white balloons into the sky.
    Western governments believe that pro-Russian rebels shot the plane out of the sky with a Russian-supplied BUK missile. Britain and Ukraine marked the anniversary with new appeals for a tribunal to prosecute suspects.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed those calls as premature and counter-productive on Thursday (July 16) in a phone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and criticised "politicised" versions of the incident "planted" in foreign media.
    Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium and Ukraine have now called for an international tribunal to bring to justice those behind the downing of the airliner.
    Rutte has said a United Nations-backed tribunal was his "preferred option" but Western diplomats say they are open to the prospect of a tribunal that is not backed by the U.N. if Russia wields its Security Council veto.
    Moscow denies giving the rebels arms and soldiers. If a report from the Dutch Safety Board, due in October, concludes that rebels shot the plane down with a Russian-made missile, it would undermine Russia's denials and could pave the way to court cases and prosecutions.
    At Hrabove, about 650 km (400 miles) east of Kiev, rebel supporters who came to the crash site, including rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko, blamed the Ukrainian forces.
    Russian officials and state media say Ukrainian forces shot down the plane, a version which many Russians say they believe.
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