Malaysia Urges All Parties To Facilitate Further Investigation On MH17 Tragedy

The Malaysian authorities said Tuesday that the preliminary report into the MH17 tragedy was welcomed and all parties should work closely together to facilitate further investigation.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement that he welcomed the preliminary report which was a collaborative effort. "The preliminary report suggests that high energy objects penetrated the aircraft and led it to break up midair. This leads to the strong suspicion that a surface to air missile brought MH17 down, but further investigative work is needed before we can be certain," he said.
Najib said the report confirmed that MH17 was flying in unrestricted airspace under the control of local air traffic controllers, and following a route and altitude cleared by air traffic control, adding that the aircraft was fully airworthy with no reported faults, and the crew acted properly.
The prime minister urged all parties to work closely together to facilitate further investigation and the production of the final report.
He also stressed the importance that the investigation gained full and unfettered access to the crash site to recover all human remains, complete their investigation and establish the truth.
At the same time, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said here in a press conference that the report which was released by the Dutch Safety Board was preliminary and a comprehensive report would be issued in approximately one year. "Our Malaysian experts were part of the Dutch Safety Board investigation team in addition to experts from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States with further assistance from experts of many other nations," he added.
Referring to the crash site as a criminal investigation area, he said the integrity of the crash site must be protected.
Liow also called on all parties to seek justice and find the perpetrators who caused the tragedy. (Cihan/Xinhua)