MH17 Search Suspended over Security Concerns
International experts have suspended their search for body parts at the MH17 crash site on Wednesday because of deteriorating security in eastern Ukraine, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
"It doesn't make sense to continue with the repatriation in this manner," the Dutch leader told a press conference in The Hague.
Rutte said increasing tension between Kiev -- which is battling pro-Russian separatists in the area -- has made it too unsafe to continue with the search for victims' remains.
"It goes without saying that Australia and Malaysia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation are with us on this issue," Rutte said.
"We have done what we could under the current circumstances," he said.
On Monday, Malaysian experts joined Dutch and Australian police for the first time as they continued combing the area for traces of the victims.
So far, 228 coffins with human remains have been flown to The Netherlands, which suffered the most casualties in the July 17 crash, where the painstaking identification process is taking place.
The probe into the crash has been repeatedly delayed because of fighting in the region.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Dutch team leading the probe said that the "complex" situation in the eastern Ukraine means investigators will miss the deadline to file a preliminary report into the cause of flight MH17's crash.
International regulations require investigators to file an initial report with the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Authority within 30 days of an accident.
"We won't make it in 30 days. The preliminary safety report will take a while still," said Sara Vernooij, spokeswoman of the Dutch Safety Board (OVV), which is leading the international investigation.
"The reason for the delay is because it's a very complex situation in Ukraine right now," she told Agence France Presse.
The probe into downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 continued under difficult conditions on Wednesday.
A total 298 passengers and crew were killed when the Boeing 777 jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky almost three weeks ago.
The United States says insurgents shot down the plane with a surface-to-air missile likely supplied by Russia, but Moscow and the rebels blame the Ukrainian military.
The aircraft's black boxes have been shipped to Farnborough in Britain to be examined by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
OVV investigators have not yet been to the crash site, but "we still want to go," said Vernooij's colleague, Wim van der Weegen.
Asked when a preliminary report could be expected, Vernooij said the team "needed more time."
"It still could take several weeks," she said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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