{"id":34053,"date":"2014-07-23T16:59:56","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T16:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=34053"},"modified":"2014-07-23T16:59:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T16:59:56","slug":"solemn-ceremony-for-mh17-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/07\/solemn-ceremony-for-mh17-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Solemn ceremony for MH17 victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Netherlands has received the first victims’ bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in a solemn ceremony at Eindhoven air base.<\/p>\n
Forty hearses left for the town of Hilversum where the formal identification process will begin.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands is observing a national day of mourning for the 298 victims, most of whom were Dutch.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the 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
As fighting continued in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, officials in Kiev told 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
US intelligence officials had earlier released evidence to the media that they said showed the separatists’ involvement in bringing down flight MH17.<\/p>\n
Rebels have also been 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
Two military planes – one Dutch and the other Australian – carrying the first 40 coffins landed at Eindhoven air base on Wednesday afternoon to be met by members of the Dutch royal family, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of victims’ relatives.<\/p>\n
Churches around the Netherlands rang their bells for five minutes before the planes landed, and flags of all the nations affected by the disaster have been flying at half mast. There was also a minute’s silence.<\/p>\n
The coffins were slowly loaded into a fleet of waiting hearses which then moved off in motorcades with motorcycle escorts.<\/p>\n
All the bodies are being taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of the city of Hilversum for identification. Mr Rutte said that process could take months.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the coffins had been loaded on to the planes by a military guard of honour at Kharkiv airport in eastern Ukraine.<\/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