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17 July 2015
- From the section Europe
Emotional services are being held to mark the first anniversary of the MH17 air disaster over eastern Ukraine, in which 298 people died.
A service was held at the Ukrainian village closest to where the Malaysian airliner came down, followed by a procession to the crash site.
Ceremonies are also being held in the Netherlands, where the majority of the victims were from.
Earlier, Australia held a memorial for its 38 citizens who died in the crash.
Pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels are widely believed to have shot down the Malaysia Airlines plane as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Russia denies this, blaming Ukrainian government forces for the disaster in the eastern Donetsk region.
Sunflower mementoes for the families
The victims
All 298 people on board the Malaysia Airlines plane lost their lives after the jet crashed into a field in eastern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. Find out more about them here.
In Hrabove, the Ukrainian village closest to the crash site, about 200 residents gathered in a church for a memorial service and held a procession to a newly unveiled memorial plaque to the victims.
The mourners, mainly women and children, carried flowers and icons and chanted Orthodox liturgical music. The perimeter of the procession was guarded by men in Soviet military uniforms, the Associated Press reports.
In the Netherlands, which lost 193 victims, flags are flying at half mast and flowers have been laid at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport from where MH17 took off.
A service will be held for the families in Nieuwegein later and is expected to be attended by about 2,000 people including Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Earlier on Friday, family and friends of the 38 Australians lost in the crash gathered for a memorial service at Parliament House in Canberra.
Wreaths and flowers were laid before a newly unveiled plaque with the names of the victims, which has been placed in the garden and set in soil that was brought back from Ukraine by an Australian police officer.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke of the “innocent people living their lives to the full… shot out of the sky in a war of aggression by one country against a smaller neighbour.”
He said Australia owed it “to the dead to bring the guilty to justice”.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop read a message from Anthony Maslin and Marite Norris, whose three children – Evie, Mo and Otis – were killed alongside their grandfather Nick Norris.
“Our family was an innocent victim of a faraway war. They were killed by other people’s anger,” they said. “We try not to become involved in what we see as a devastating surge of sadness, suffering and anger in the world today.”
At the scene: Tom Burridge, BBC News, Hrabove
The service, full of Orthodox Christian rituals, at the small, brightly coloured village church in Hrabove near to the main crash site, was solemn.
There was a genuine sense of respect for the 298 people on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, who were strangers to this remote rural community in eastern Ukraine.
The congregation could never have imagined the horror that appeared near their homes in the aftermath of the disaster. Nor could they ever have imagined that their simple little church would play host to the international media, as it did today.
But afterwards, up the hill, at the newly placed stone memorial by the main crash site, the event organised by the rebel authorities had a distinctly political edge.
There were lots of blue, red and black flags from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), as well as flags from a youth movement which is overtly pro-DNR. The head of that youth movement gave an energetic speech, saying that “the Ukrainian criminals” were responsible for downing the plane.
As the rebel leader of the DNR, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, arrived amid very tight security, I asked him whether he would back the idea of holding an international tribunal for those responsible once the criminal investigation into MH17 has concluded.
“I support the idea of a proper investigation,” he replied, but another rebel leader told me he would not back the idea of a tribunal until the results of the investigation are known.
In Malaysia, a memorial service was held in Kuala Lumpur on 11 July – because the anniversary of the disaster comes at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which is traditionally a holiday. Each victim was named and then honoured with a moment of silence.
‘Politicised coverage’
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, who will attend a service in Kiev, said on Friday it was a “moral duty” to find out who was behind the downing of the plane.
He reaffirmed his support for a UN tribunal to prosecute the suspects – something which has also been called for by the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected the idea, calling it “premature and counter-productive” and criticised what he called the “clearly politicised” coverage by Western media of the disaster.
A final report on the cause of the crash is due to be released in October by the Dutch Safety Board. The Netherlands is leading the criminal investigation and is being assisted by Belgium, Australia and Ukraine.
The remains of at least two of the victims have still not been found.
