The first planes carrying bodies from flight MH17 have left Ukraine for the Netherlands, which is holding a day of mourning for the 298 victims.<\/p>\n
Experts there will begin to identify the dead, most of whom were Dutch.<\/p>\n
Pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines plane on 17 July.<\/p>\n
UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels deliberately tampered with evidence, moving bodies and placing parts from other planes in the debris.<\/p>\n
US intelligence officials had earlier released evidence to the media that they said showed the separatists’ involvement in downing the plane.<\/p>\n
Rebels were also accused of exaggerating the number of bodies transported from the crash site to the town of Kharkiv on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
They had claimed 282 bodies had been loaded on to a train, but experts said only 200 could be verified.<\/p>\n
The first 40 coffins were slowly loaded on to two military planes at Kharkiv airport on Wednesday morning by a military guard of honour.<\/p>\n
Ambassadors, officials and soldiers gathered to see off the planes.<\/p>\n
Australian government envoy Angus Houston said the ceremony was intended to give the victims the “respect and dignity they deserve” after a “tragedy of unspeakable proportions”.<\/p>\n
Dutch government representative Hans Docter said the victims had begun their “long journey” home.<\/p>\n
The first flight is due to arrive in Eindhoven at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and will be met by members of the Dutch royal family and Prime Minister Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n
Churches around the Netherlands will ring their bells for five minutes before the planes land.<\/p>\n
The bodies are then due to be taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of Hilversum for identification.<\/p>\n
Mr Rutte said that process could take months.<\/p>\n
In a separate process, the “black box” flight-data recorders from MH17 have arrived in the UK, where they will be examined at the headquarters of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebels around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk has reportedly left 16 people dead.<\/p>\n
A statement from overall military commander Igor Strelkov posted on a rebel website said he had withdrawn his fighters from the outskirts of Donetsk.<\/p>\n
He said they had pulled back and were prepared to defend their positions.<\/p>\n
And Ukrainian officials confirmed to the BBC that two aircraft, thought to be military jets, had been downed just 35km (20 miles) from the crash site.<\/p>\n
The officials had no information on the cause of the crashes, or the fate of the pilots.<\/p>\n
The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.<\/p>\n