Dutch To Begin Assembling MH17 Wreckage For Investigation
AMSTERDAM, Dec 9 (Reuters) -- Crash investigators were to begin reconstructing the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 shot down over eastern Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board, after wreckage arrived by truck at a Dutch air force hangar on Tuesday.
Members of the national Safety Board will piece together the remains of the plane to determine exactly what brought down flight MH17.
A parallel criminal investigation is being conducted by Dutch prosecutors in 11 countries to identify possible culprits. Two-thirds of the passengers on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch.
Washington and its allies said pro-Russian rebels fighting in the area hit the plane with a surface-to-air missile. Russia, caught up in its worst confrontation with the West since the Cold war, said the missile came from a Ukrainian government jet.
Dozens of relatives of the victims looked on in the southern town of Gilze-Rijen as eight flatbed trucks pulled into the military base under police escort.
Ukrainian emergency services operating under Dutch supervision picked up wreckage considered most valuable for the inquiry during a six-day operation in November. Bits of fuselage could help determine what direction the missile came from.
Grieving families have protested against delays in the investigation after debris lay strewn across the crash site for months. One group last week called for a U.N. envoy to take over the investigation, saying Dutch authorities had failed to build a case.
From our correspondent in Brussels, Rikard Jozwiak:
BRUSSELS -- Ukraine's ambassador to the European Union, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, has accused Russia of seeking to sow discord within the EU.
Yelisieiev was speaking at an event organized by the European Policy Center (EPC) think-tank in Brussels on December 9.
He said that "what needs to be done is first of all try to safeguard solidarity and unity inside the European Union because the main target, the main objective of the Kremlin is to try to disrupt the unity inside the European Union."
Yelisieiev said he believes that was a motive in Russia's decision announced to scrap South Stream project to pipe gas under the Black Sea and into Europe.
He said Russia is thinking about "how to best try to split the European Union."
Moscow has accused the EU of scuttling South Stream, but EU officials say Russian gas company Gazprom has refused to abide by EU competition rules.