UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-MALAYSIA Malaysia marks anniversary of fatal MH17 crash in Ukraine

Record ID: 147538

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/MH17-MALAYSIA Malaysia marks anniversary of fatal MH17 crash in Ukraine
  • Date: 11th July 2015
  • Summary: ARMY HOLDING FLAGS OF COUNTRIES WHOSE CITIZENS WERE INVOLVED IN THE CRASH
  • Embargoed: 26th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malaysia
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAEVQX621QA98L0XWC1ZQW508Z
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Malaysia on Saturday (July 11) held a national memorial ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine.
    Next-of-kin, friends of the victims and Malaysia Airlines staff joined Prime Minister Najib Razak and other senior government members at the sombre event.
    Najib said in remarks at the ceremony which was aired live on state television that the criminal investigation was expected to continue until year-end.
    "We call on all nations concerned to provide the fullest cooperation, so that we will be able to gather irrefutable evidence as to what happened and especially as to who will be responsible for this unforgivable incident," he said.
    "Closure to this incident is absolutely vital, so that all the next of kin can continue with their lives therefore the ultimate action of finding who were responsible and bringing them to book and justice must be carried out," he added.
    The jetliner was carrying 298 people when it was shot down in eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year. It crashed in territory held by Russian-backed separaists.
    The flight was en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam, and the majority of the passengers were Dutch.
    The Malaysian government has asked the United Nations Security Council to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those suspected of downing a passenger airliner last year in eastern Ukraine, but Russia dismissed the move on Thursday (July 9).
    Malaysia, a member of the 15-member council, distributed a draft resolution late on Wednesday (July 8), which it hoped could be adopted later this month, diplomats said. It is a joint proposal by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine.
    A report by a multinational investigation into the cause of the crash, led by the Netherlands, is due later this year. Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine are also part of the joint inquiry.
    Forty-three Malaysians, including 15 crew members, were killed in the crash.The tragedy was the second major aviation disaster to hit the country and the national carrier just four months after a Beijing-bound MH370 disappeared off the radar with 239 passengers and crew on board.
    Ivy Loi wife of late Captain, Eugene Choo Jin Leong, wanted justice.
    "We still waiting for justice, defiantly the life is not free just like that. I want maybe penalise or anything" she said.
    The family of Madzalina Ghazalee's sister was killed in the tragedy,
    "Of course we are sad, the family members are not around and what can we say, we redha (accept)," she said, after the ceremony.
    Following the disaster the Najib condemned the "inhumane" action of the shooting down of the plan during a special parliament session on July 23, 2014. With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, the Dutch have been taking a leading role in the international effort to investigate the cause of the crash.
    Prosecutors are testing the theory that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air BUK missile fired from an area held by pro-Russian forces. But they say they do not expect to issue indictments until after the Dutch Safety Board releases a report in October detailing how the plane was downed.
    Russia for its part has put forward a scenario, denied by Kiev, that the airliner was downed by a rocket fired from a Ukrainian fighter jet.
    With relations between Russia and the West at their lowest ebb since the Cold War, Moscow might have little interest in cooperating with any trial held in the West.
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