SINGAPORE, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has guaranteed safety for Malaysian experts to work at the MH17 crash site in the Donetsk region (eastern Ukraine), Malaysian Interior Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said before the departure of a group of 30 Malaysian police experts for Ukraine overnight.
After an agreement was reached on a ceasefire (in eastern Ukraine), the OSCE guaranteed security for the Malaysian team of experts, he said. The Malaysian authorities were also informed that the conflict parties had withdrawn weapons to observe the ceasefire, the minister added.
He said the main task in the work was to gather evidence to present it to a court to establish whether the airliner was shot down by a missile.
Experts were expected to begin the search operation as soon as possible, as it may begin snowing in a few weeks at the crash site and it will complicate the work, he said.
The minister also said that divers were in the group, who would examine a lake near the crash site. Last time it was impossible because of continuing fighting near the area.
The last search operation lasted less than a week. International experts ended the work on August 6 due to safety risks.
Malaysian police chief Halid Abu Bakar said the specialists examined less than a half of the area and did not take any fragments from the site.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing on Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on July 17, killing all the 298 people who were on board.