The Netherlands and Australia had planned to send armed officers to ensure that investigators are able to carry out their work at the vast crash site. But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte now said this is no longer viable.
"Getting the military upper hand for an international mission in this area is according to our conclusion not realistic," Rutte told journalists in The Hague, noting the presence of heavily armed separatists and the proximity of the border with Russia - accused of backing the rebels.
- Even an unarmed team of Dutch and Australian officers was forced to drop their plans to visit the site on Sunday as heavy bombardments rocked towns close to the site, where some remains of the 298 victims from the plane still lie decomposing under the summer sun.
- "There is fighting going on. We can't take the risk," said Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the European security body OSCE's special mission in Ukraine.
- An AFP photographer heard artillery bombardments just a kilometre from the rebel-held town of Grabove, next to the crash site, and saw black smoke billowing into the sky.
- Terrified local residents were fleeing and checkpoints controlled by separatist fighters were abandoned.
That came after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he had reached an agreement with the pro-Russian insurgents controlling the site to allow the police deployment.
"I hope that this agreement... will ensure security on the ground, so the international investigators can conduct their work," Razak said, adding that 68 Malaysian police personnel would leave Kuala Lumpur for the crash site on Wednesday.
So far investigators have visited the site only sporadically because of security concerns, even though a truce had been called in the immediate area around the site by both the Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists.
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin claimed on Twitter that rebels were responsible for any violence close to the crash site.
- Kiev is "committed to its unilateral cease-fire within 40km zone of MH17 site", and "terrorists (are) destroying evidence of the crime", the minister insisted.
Local authorities reported at least 13 people including two children aged one and five killed on Sunday in fierce combat in rebel holdout Gorlivka, about 45 kilometres to the north of Donetsk, and which has a population of about a quarter of a million.
Ukraine's military accused insurgent fighters of firing unguided Grad rockets at residential blocks in the city "aiming to bring discredit to the Ukrainian army and frighten the non-combattants".
A rebel commander from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic told a press conference that the situation in Gorlivka was "fine for the moment".
- The outskirts of mining hub Donetsk itself was also subject to intense bombardment throughout the night, some of it apparently Grad rocket fire.
Ukraine's anti-terrorism office said a female Polish journalist working for pro-Kiev Espreso TV was seriously wounded in clashes the Lugansk region and evacuated to the government-held city of Kharkiv.
Ignoring safety warnings, an Australian couple had travelled to the crash site without any escort Saturday, saying they were fulfilling a promise to their only child that they would be there.
"She was full of life," said Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski of their 25-year-old daughter Fatima, an aerospace engineering student.
Dutch authorities have identified the first victim, after 227 coffins with remains inside were flown to the Netherlands for identification.
The insurgents said they have also handed over a sealed train carriage filled with victims' belongings to the Dutch.
In Brussels, the European Union is drafting tougher sanctions against Russia - which it accuses of abetting the insurgency by arming the rebels who allegedly shot down the aircraft.
Sanctions targeting economic sectors including an arms embargo are being considered, while on Tuesday the bloc is expected to unveil more names of individuals and entities sanctioned.
Moscow has blasted the move as "irresponsible", and warned that it jeopardised cooperation on security issues.
Meanwhile in Kiev, lawmakers are to meet next week to discuss Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's future, after the premier quit in fury over the collapse of his coalition.
About 1,000 people - including the victims of the Malaysian plane crash - have been killed in the deadly insurgency, and the United Nations estimates that some 230,000 have fled their homes.
- AFP/de
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/mh17-armed-mission/1285428.html
27-28/7/14
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Australia, Netherlands plan fresh attempt to reach MH17 site...
ReplyDeleteSYDNEY - A team of Dutch and Australian police will on Monday (28 July) again attempt to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a senior Australian official said, although he warned the situation was volatile.
An unarmed team of Dutch and Australian officers was forced to drop their plans to visit the site in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as heavy bombardments rocked towns close to the area where the plane was shot down, killing all 298 on board. And tensions led the Netherlands to scrap a plan to send an international armed mission in to secure the site in the rebel-contested area, with the Dutch Prime Minister saying it was "not realistic".
Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Andrew Colvin said another attempt would be made on Monday. "As you know, the mission was aborted overnight due to the intensity of the fighting occurring both on the route into the crash site as well as at the crash site itself," he told reporters.
"I recently got off the phone from our commander in Ukraine about the activities expected again for today and again in company with our Dutch counterparts and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) monitors we will attempt again to gain access to the site today. Of course it is a highly volatile area and I should stress that safety is paramount in our minds, safety of the Australian and Dutch officials and the OSCE officers as well."
Earlier Monday, Colvin cautioned that if fighting in the area was a genuine offensive to take back ground, "we may be some days before we can feel safe and secure to go back in there". He added that Australian police would have no role in securing the site and would only be involved in a detailed examination of the crash area, which Colvin estimated would take five to seven days initially.
Dutch authorities on Sunday said the team was currently in Donetsk, a rebel stronghold about 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the crash site.................http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/australia-netherlands/1285840.html
Une équipe formée de policiers néerlandais et australiens va tenter à nouveau lundi 28 juillet d'atteindre le site du crash du MH17 dans l'est de l'Ukraine bien que la situation reste tendue, indique un haut responsable de la police à Sydney....
ReplyDeleteLa veille, les policiers venus des Pays-Bas (dont 193 ressortissants étaient à bord du Boeing de Malaysia Airlines) et d'Australie (qui comptait 28 citoyens et neuf résidents dans le MH17) avaient renoncé à se rendre sur le site du crash, en raison des combats dans cette zone de l'Ukraine contrôlée par les séparatistes prorusses.................http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/malaysia-airlines/20140728.OBS4826/vol-mh17-le-site-du-crash-toujours-aussi-difficile-d-acces.html?xtor=RSS-17
Analysis of the black box flight recorders from a downed Malaysian airliner show it was destroyed by shrapnel coming from a rocket blast and went down because of "massive explosive decompression", a Ukrainian security official said on July 28....
ReplyDeleteThe spokesman for Ukraine's Security Council, Andriy Lysenko, told a news conference in Kiev the information came from experts analysing the recorders from the plane that came down in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on July 17.
Britain was tasked with downloading the data from two black boxes recovered from the crash site and handing that information over to international investigators for analysis.
Kyiv and the West accuse pro-Russian rebels of shooting down the plane. Moscow says the Ukrainian government is responsible for the crash, which killed all 298 people on board.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ukraine-says-recorders-show-massive-explosive-decompression-brought-down-airliner.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69694&NewsCatID=359
28/7/14
The Ukrainian military’s attempt to take control of the site where a Malaysian Airlines Boeing recently crashed will violate United Nations Security Council resolution 2166, Russia’s permanent representative to the international organization Vitaly Churkin said Monday....
ReplyDeleteChurkin expressed concern about the Ukrainian authorities’ statements on a possible military operation at the air crash site.
“This will directly violate resolution 2166,” he said.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/742647
Ukraine's parliament on Thursday (31 July) ratified deals with the Netherlands and Australia allowing them to send some 950 "armed personnel" to secure the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in war-torn east Ukraine....
ReplyDeleteThe agreements allow the two countries to dispatch "military and non-military" personnel to the scene, although Dutch officials have previously said it would be "not realistic" to send troops in to bolster a team of police experts already on the ground.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/ukraine-parliament-agrees/1291170.html
31/7/14