The Security council has unanimously backed an Australian-drafted resolution condemning the "downing" of flight MH17 as separatists handover the black boxes to a Malaysian delegation
• Train holding bodies leaves rebel-held station • Obama: 'Burden on Russia' to ensure crash access • Five killed as clashes break out in Donetsk • UN adopts resolution to investigate crash site • Rebels allow experts limited acces to site and bodies
Members of the security council vote on a resolution concerning access to the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 during a security council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 21, 2014. The resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP
5.04pm AEST
Summary
•The train carrying the bodies has left Donetsk and is on its way to Kharkiv, where Ukrainian and Dutch recovery teams are waiting. •Heavy fighting broke out in Donetsk between rebels and the Ukrainian military, killing five people. Many civilians evacuated from the rebel stronghold, and all were told to stay indoors. A convoy of separatist forces was seen leaving the city. •Recent reports claim a suicide bomber has attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint. •Russian ambassador to Malaysia Lyudmila Vorobyeva has told media in Kuala Lumpur she is "convinced" the separatist rebels were not behind the shooting down of the plane. •Protests outside the Russian embassy in Malaysia have begun. •World leaders and foreign dignitaries have signed condolence books at ceremonies in Australia and Malaysia. •The UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding access to the crash site and an independent investigation,as well as a ceasefire around the area. The US ambassador accused Russia of telling separatists "We have your backs," and Russia's envoy implied the US and Ukraine were turning "tragedy into a farce". Dutch prosecutors opened a war crimes investigationinto the downing of flight MH17. •Separatists handed two MH17 black boxes to a Malaysian delegation, after a separatist leader made a deal with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. •US President Barack Obama said "the burden is on Russia"to use its influence and ensure full access to the crash site,as well as to allow a "immediate and transparent investigation". The US reiterated its assertion that a SA-11 missile system shot down MH17 from separatist-controlled territory, and its suspicion of Russian aid. •The EU is poised to increase sanctions on Russia at a meeting of foreign ministers Tuesday in Brussels. The UK and Germany have called to "raise the pressure" on Russia, but France will likely resist calls to cancel a €1.2bn contract to sell assault vehicles to Russia. •Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said separatist should be designated "terrorists" by the international community, and denied aclaim from Russia's defense ministry that a Ukrainian warplane was flying near MH17 at the time of the crash. Russian army officials denied providing a Buk missile system to separatists. •Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivered an address after speaking with several world leaders and called for a "humanitarian corridor" to all for recover and investigation. He stopped short of calling on rebels to disarm, saying the disaster should not be used for "narrow, political reasons".
4.57pm AEST
The Sky News reporter, Colin Brazier, who was criticised for handling the belongings of one of the passengers, has written to apologise and explain his actions. It's worth read his piece in its entirety. Here is an excerpt:
Good journalism takes many things and the empathy I hope [my children] have wrought in me is one of them. But so is understanding the boundaries of decency and taste. And from time to time, we screw up.
At the weekend I got things wrong. If there was someone to apologise to in person, I would. While presenting Sky's lunchtime coverage of the flight MH17 disaster, I stooped down to look at a piece of debris. It was a child's suitcase. I put my hand inside and lifted up a water bottle and a set of keys. As I did so my mental circuit-breaker finally engaged and I apologised instantly on-air for what I was doing.
Brazier, who has reported from aviation disasters before, also described the scene at the crash site.
There are roadblocks manned by sullen-looking teenagers cradling AK-47s, but no meaningful law and order. It is a warzone and the men in charge carry guns and grudges.
So I, and many others, were allowed to walk around the crash site at will.
The sights were shocking. I could not comprehend what we seeing. Bodies and body parts everywhere. I phoned my wife. "It's a butcher's yard", I said.
4.28pm AEST
A forensic expert heading to the Netherlands to assist with victim identification for the investigation expects it to be similar to his experience working in the aftermath of Australia's Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.
Professor Ranson, the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) deputy director, has identified victims of the Boxing Day tsunami, the Bali bombing and the Kosovo war.
"I think the process is very similar to the work we did in the Victorian bushfires," he told AAP.
"I imagine that there will be a number of bodies - some of those will be intact and some will be non-intact, and we will be using similar methods."
He said he had seen reports of evidence tampering and degradation of the crash site on the news.
"It's very important to ensure the proper collection of that material so that we do not lose items that are useful in the identification process, but I have no detailed information."
A mortuary technician, two odontologists and a fingerprint expert will join Prof Ranson and the remainder of the Australian contingent.
4.14pm AEST
Australian treasurer Joe Hockey has commented on the issue of Vladimir Putin attending the G20 in Brisbane later this year.
He said nobody knows what the fallout will be from the downing of MH17, but he hopes Russia still attends the summit.
"The Russians have said they will co-operate with all this - let's find out if they are fair dinkum or not," Mr Hockey told Sky News while on an official visit to New Zealand.
"Rarely are great things achieved by excluding people from the conversation," he said.
Ultimately, the decision about Russia's attendance rested with G20 members.
4.01pm AEST
From Reuters:
A spokesman for Ukraine's military operation in the country's east said on Tuesday a suicide bomber driving a minibus packed with explosives had attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint during the night.
A spokesman for the "anti-terrorist operation" against separatists who have rebelled in eastern Ukraine told 112 television channel: "A checkpoint was attacked by a suicide bomber in a van packed with explosives." He gave no further details.
3.12pm AEST
The train carrying the remains of 280 people killed was finally allowed to leave eastern Ukraine as the militants declared a truce around the crash site.
"We will order a ceasefire in an area of 10 kilometres around" the site of the disaster, said Alexander Borodai at the black box handover press conference.
Then hours later, the rebels released the bodies, which had been sitting on a train in Donetsk.
It is expected to arrive in the government-controlled city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Bodies will then be flown to the Netherlands, for forensic testing, and then repatriation to home countries.
2.56pm AEST
"We will be erring on the side of generosity when it comes to their treatment," Abbott said when pressed about speculation over compensation payments to victims' families in Australia.
2.49pm AEST
“After the crime comes the cover up,” the Australian prime minister has said a few moments ago.
"What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale, and obviously that has to stop.”
There has been some progress in the last 24 hours, said Abbott, citing the UN resolution passing in the security council, the negotiations between the rebels and the Malaysian delegation which resulted in the former handing over the black boxes.
He then detailed Operation Bring Them Home, which is headed by the country’s chief of Air Chief Marshal (retired) Angus Houston, and involves diplomatic and emergency services personnel across continents to repatriate the bodies and investigate the crash site.
An Australian c-17 plane will be involved in taking the bodies from Ukraine to the Netherlands when the train arrives in Kharkiv.
2.46pm AEST
Still in Malaysia, the Dutch embassy has opened a book of condolences in memory of the country's 193 victims.
Ambassadors from Ukraine, Mexico, United States, Iran, Germany as well as the Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia have already signed, according to the Star.
In Canberra, Australia, politicians and foreign ambassadors have also signed a book of condolence, during a ceremony at Parliament House
She achieved a major win for Australia at the UN this morning, but that doesn’t mean Julie Bishop is a household name internationally just yet. Picture: Gary RamageSource: News Corp Australia
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott says the MH17 crash scene has been severely tampered with and “after the crime comes the cover-up”.
Mr Abbott told a media conference this afternoon an Australian military plane would be used to transport MH17 victims to the Netherlands where they would be identified — beginning a process he hoped would mean they were returned to their loved ones.
He said it would be a slow process and it was important to take care so the right remains of the victims went where they were supposed to.
“As frustrating as this is, we do have to get it right. It would be terrible to compound families’ grief by risking the misidentification of their loved ones.”
He was more optimistic today about, “how things might turn out” but cautioned there was still much work to be done.
Much of that depended on Russian President Vladmir Putin honouring his word to allow a full and fair investigation.
So far, the scene had been subjected to an “industrial” size tampering and “after the crime comes the cover-up”, the Prime Minister said.
“This site has been trampled from the beginning ... Random individuals roaming around the site ... The more recent footage looks more like a building demolition than a forensic investigation.”
Although he believed the best security for the site would be from the countries who have lost citizens, he would not commit defence force staff or AFP officers to the task — but equally didn’t rule out Australian forces joining a multinational team later.
“A multinational police force or a multinational force of some kind is not something that can be just summoned up in a matter of a few hours.”
He would not discuss details of his conversations with world leaders on the matter of crash scene security.
Despite the tampering and contamination he was confident there was an “enormous amount” of evidence of MH17’s final moments — and the weapon that brought it down — that could still be found.
Mr Abbott said his determination, and that of the Government’s, was driven by “doing the right thing” by the Australian victims and their families who were suffering “almost unimaginable grief”.
Obama accused separatists of impeding the investigation and removing evidence
A pro-Russian fighter guards the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove. (Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press)
Since pro-Russian separatist rebels took control of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash site, concerns have been raised that the insurgents accused of downing the jetliner may have tampered with or hauled away debris.
Although the site may have been compromised, experts say there will likely be enough evidence and clues scattered about to get answers about the crash, even if the rebels have attempted to hide the cause.
“I never say never about anything, but I kind of doubt they could identify and find all the pieces,” said Richard Marquise, a former FBI agent who led the task force investigating the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. “I mean, if they sent a team of 1,000 people there, let's presuppose it was the Russians … they might be lucky to pick up every single piece and walk away with it, but I think in a huge crime scene it’s very difficult.”
So far, separatists have given international observers only limited access to the crash site. On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama accused the separatists of impeding the investigation and removing evidence. “What exactly are they trying to hide?” he asked.
Rebels have handed over two black box flight recorders to aviation experts, which could provide some information. Or, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103, they might only reveal that a catastrophic failure on the aircraft occurred. This is why debris from the wreckage of planes often provides crucial clues into the cause of crashes.
In the case of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, forensic specialists found framing from an aluminum baggage container marred with the residue of high explosives.This allowed investigators to determine quickly that a bomb had brought down the plane, Marquise said.
Fragments from the fuselage also revealed that the blast did not come from outside the aircraft. Meanwhile, investigators found on the ground a tiny fragment “no bigger than a thumbnail” that came from a radio/cassette player that had been used to store the bomb, and a fragment from a timer that could be traced to Libya.
Unlike Lockerbie bombing case
The case of Flight MH17 is different, if it was a missile that brought down the Boeing 777. Wreckage of the plane, which might be scattered over kilometres, would be important to determine whether the plane was downed by an external force.
"If it was an explosive device, what the investigators would be looking for is evidence of that explosive device,” said Phil Giles, who worked in Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch and was part of the Lockerbie bombing investigation team "That’s all stuff that, with people poring over the site, can get trampled on, moved. Whereas with this [crash] you’re really in a different scenario.”
Deputy head of the OSCE mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug (center right) stands outside a refrigerated train as members of the Netherlands' National Forensic Investigations Team inspect bodies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says tragedies such as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 last week should "bring people together" rather than "dividing us."
Putin issued the written statement a day after the United States outlined its case against Russia. As we reported, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said "it's pretty clear" the missile that downed the commercial jetliner came from "a system that was transferred from Russia."
Putin did not directly address those allegations, but instead pointed the finger at the pro-Western government in Kiev.
"I believe that if military operations had not resumed in eastern Ukraine on June 28, this tragedy probably could have been avoided," Putin said, referring to the end of a 10-day-old cease-fire.
Putin also called for authorities in Ukraine to do everything possible to "ensure that international experts can work in safety at the crash site."
In a statement from the South Lawn of the White House late Monday morning, Obama said he appreciates those words, "but they have to be supported by actions."
Obama said Russia has a "direct responsibility" to compel rebels to cooperate.
"Our friends and allies need to be able to recover those who were lost," Obama said. "Families deserve to be able to lay down their loved ones with dignity."
If Russia continues to destabilize Ukraine, Obama said, it will further isolate itself from the international community.
USA Today reports that Dutch investigators arrived at the scene of the crash on Monday to begin their inspection of scores of bodies stored in a refrigerated rail car. All of the 298 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 777 were killed.
The newspaper adds:
"The arrival of the Dutch forensics experts came as the United Nations Security Council was preparing to vote on a resolution demanding international access to the site where Flight MH17 went down Thursday after being hit by a surface-to-air missile.
"Armed rebels, who control the area, had kept international inspectors at bay for days, prompting outrage from political leaders in the Netherlands and Australia, whose citizens were aboard the ill-fated jetliner.
"During the weekend, separatist groups began removing bodies and other evidence from the huge debris field."
The Guardian reports that the 15-member security council is set to vote on the Australian-drafted resolution on Monday.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, diplomats told the paper they were unsure if the final resolution would be supported by Russia.
Update at 12:51 p.m. ET. Reported Deal With Militants:
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says his government has established "the basis of an agreement" with Ukrainian separatists to secure evidence, launch an independent investigation and recover the remains of those who died on Flight MH17.
Razak says the remains of 282 people will be moved by train from Torez to Kharkiv in Ukraine, "where they will be handed over to representatives from the Netherlands." Later this evening, the prime minister said, two black boxes will be handed over to a Malaysian team in Donetsk.
Razak said that Alexander Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, also guaranteed the safe passage of independent investigators.
"In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and grief that the Malaysian people feel. And that I feel. But sometimes, we must work quietly in the service of a better outcome," Razak concluded. "My heart reaches out to those whose loved ones were lost on MH17. We hope and pray that the agreement reached tonight helps bring them a clear step towards closure."
President Obama says it is likely that a missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine brought down Malaysia Airlines MH17 and that at least one U.S. citizen is among the dead.
"Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile from an area controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine," Obama said, noting that it's not the only time in recent months that the pro-Russia rebels had taken down airplanes.
He called the deaths of the 298 people aboard the plane "an outrage of unspeakable proportions."
The president identified the American killed on the flight as Quinn Lucas Schansman who he said held dual citizenship. Schansman's other citizenship was Dutch, according to the U.S. State Department.
Obama referred to the arming of the rebels and the "steady flow of weapons from Russia" and said if Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a decision not to arm the separatists, then the flow will stop.
"There has to be a credible investigation," he said. "There must be an immediate cease-fire. Evidence must not be tampered with."
He promised U.S. assistance in the investigation.
All sides in the conflict in Ukraine — Kiev, the separatists, and Moscow — have denied any involvement in the downing of MH17.
The president's remarks at a news briefing on Friday came as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby sought to flesh out the evidence.
Power, in a presentation to the U.N. Security Council, said that pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine had been spotted by a Western journalist manning an SA-11 surface-to-air missile system at a location near where MH17 went down just hours before the plane crashed.
"We assess Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 ... was likely downed by a surface-to-air [SAM] missile, an SA-11, operated from a separatist-held location in eastern Ukraine," she said.
Power said that because of the flight's high altitude, shorter-range missile systems had been ruled out. She noted that one of the missile systems had been reported to be in the area of the crash Thursday, before the plane went down.
Separatists had posted videos and boasts online about downing a Ukrainian plane Thursday, Power said, adding that some of those materials have since been deleted.
"Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11, it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel. Thus we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems," she added.
The U.S. isn't aware of any Ukrainian SA-11 systems in the area where the crash occurred, Power said. She added that the Ukrainian military hadn't fired any anti-aircraft missiles since the fighting began, despite incursions by Russian planes.
Power spoke at an emergency session of the council. The meeting began with all of the diplomats and their staff members standing to observe a moment of silence for victims of the crash.
At the Pentagon, Kirby told reporters that he didn't have any specific information that the SA-11 system, known as a "Buk," had "transited" the Russian border, "but we are not ruling anything in or out.
"We don't directly know who's responsible for firing that missile," he said. However, if the separatists are involved, it "would be strange credulity to say they could do this without some level of Russian assistance," he said.
Audio Recording
As they try to piece together how Flight MH17 was brought down, U.S. experts are analyzing a recording released by Ukraine's government that it says is a string of intercepted phone calls in which separatist rebels acknowledge that they shot down an airliner.
However, as NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, U.S. intelligence has not yet publicly authenticated the recording.
"Privately, U.S. officials say they suspect separatist rebels were behind the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17," Dina reports. "U.S. officials say they are still analyzing the audio. They are also using algorithms and mathematics to pinpoint where the missile was fired from."
The fate of the flight's "black box" data recorders remains in question. After the separatists said they had recovered them from the crash site, Ukrainian officials disputed that account. And while some reports stated that the flight recorders might be sent to Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow has "no plans to seize the flight recorders," according to state-owned news agency RT.
Reporter Noah Sneider is in the Donetsk region; he says he has seen separatists near the wreckage.
"They have taken control of the crash site, because they're in control of this region," Sneider tells NPR's Newscast unit. "The Ukrainian forces have a position not too far from here, but for the most part, this stretch of road is controlled by the rebels.
"They were the first ones on the scene," he adds, "and they're the ones who are now guarding the entrances to it."
Saying that Ukrainian authorities still aren't being given full access to the crash site, Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, says security forces will create a corridor so that "Ukrainian experts and international experts will be allowed to hold a vast international investigation."
That's according to The Guardian, which quotes Yatsenyuk saying, "This is a crime against humanity. All red lines have been crossed."
Passengers And Flight Route
Malaysia Airlines executive Huib Gorter says that an "initial cash payment of $5,000 per passenger" is being offered to the victims' next of kin, to help them with expenses as they cope with the aftermath of Thursday's crash.
In a news conference at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Gorter said that Malaysia Airlines and other international carriers had been using the same route, making the crash a "tragic incident that could have happened to any of us."
He said they are all now avoiding the airspace.
Of the plane, Gorter said that it had been built in 1997 and that all systems were functioning normally when it was last checked out earlier this month.
Of the flight routes over eastern Ukraine, NPR's David Schaper reports, "There had been no warnings about that area from the FAA, nor from the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization." David adds that the airspace over Crimea, which seceded from Ukraine earlier this year, has been under restrictions since April.
Parts of the crash site are still smoldering Friday; photos from the scene show parts of the plane and personal items scattered around open fields. And a video that reportedly shows the aftermath of the crash shows debris falling through a cloud of thick black smoke.
We'll update this post as news comes in. Here's a quick update on what we know about the situation:
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 had been flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur carrying 298 people — 283 passengers and 15 crew. (Early reports of 295 people onboard were updated with the news that three infants were among the passengers.)
The breakdown of nationalities: 192 Dutch; 44 Malaysians; 28 Australians; 12 Indonesians; 10 Britons; 4 Germans; 4 Belgians; 3 Vietnamese; 3 Filipinos; 1 American (dual U.S.-Dutch citizen); 1 Canadian; 1 New Zealander; 1 Hong Kong Chinese.
The flight plan filed by the plane's pilots had requested an altitude of 35,000 feet during their passage over Ukraine, but air traffic control in Ukraine instructed them to fly at 33,000 feet, Malaysia Airlines says.
Indian schoolchildren hold candles and prayer messages for those killed in the crash of a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
The Boeing 777 went down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which for months has been a focal point of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine's central government.
U.S. officials tell NPR the airliner was likely shot down by a surface-to-air missile and that they're working to determine who fired it.
Kiev officials accuse the separatists of firing a missile at the jet. The separatists, Ukraine's military and Russia have all denied any involvement.
The separatists have promised to aid the investigation, reportedly planning a three-day truce to allow investigators to reach the wreckage.
More than half of the flight's passengers were from the Netherlands. The U.S. is trying to determine whether any Americans were onboard.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has barred all U.S. flights from using the airspace over eastern Ukraine. The agency notes that no U.S. airlines have been flying routes there.
Investigators from the FBI and NTSB will reportedly help analyze the crash — President Obama offered that assistance to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone call on Thursday.
The plane's passengers included roughly 100 people who had been traveling to a major global AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia. The activists and researchers included former International AIDS Society President Joep Lange.
The crash has spurred international shock and outrage. President Obama and many world leaders have called it a tragedy, while others such as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott note that the crash "is not an accident, it is a crime." Ukraine's Poroshenko has called it an act of terrorism.
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency session today to discuss the crash and call for a full and thorough investigation. The meeting began with all of the diplomats and their staff members standing to observe a moment of silence.
As our Parallels blog notes, a civilian airliner was shot down over Ukraine just 13 years ago. It was one of a handful of passenger jets that have been downed in recent decades; in almost all of those situations, the attacks were found to have been accidents.
The downing of MH17 is the second incident involving Malaysia Airlines in the past four months. The airline and Malaysian officials have been at the center of the search for Flight MH370, which mysteriously disappeared in March. That plane, also a Boeing 777, had 239 people onboard.
Accessing Crash Site
Because the area where MH17 went down is controlled by separatists rebels, getting investigators to the scene of the accident is already proving difficult.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have not been able to secure the crash site, OSCE Chairman Thomas Greminger said Friday, according to Reuters.
He said that a team of 17 monitors visited the site for about 75 minutes, but "they did not have the kind of access that they expected."
"They did not have the freedom of movement that they need to do their job," Greminger told Reuters by telephone.
Filip Warwick, a freelance photographer who has reached the crash site tells Here & Now that the Ukrainian government has been refused entry to the wreckage, but otherwise "you've had journalists, you had separatists, you had chauffeurs, taxi drivers, even ordinary members of the public ... walk all over the crime scene.
"I haven't come across a single mobile phone, I haven't come across a single wallet with money, I haven't come across a single camera — they all mysteriously have gone missing," Warwick said.
Ukraine has accused pro-Russian militiamen at the site of the Malaysia Airlines
crash of trying to destroy evidence of an "international crime".
For a second day, OSCE monitors at the scene have had their movements
restricted by militiamen.
Reports that bodies have been moved prompted anger from the Netherlands. Most
of the passengers were Dutch.
The jet was reportedly hit by a missile over a rebel-held area in east
Ukraine on Thursday. All 298 people died.
Both Ukraine and the rebels have accused each other of shooting it down.
The Boeing 777 flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. It fell
between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region
of Donetsk.
The
passenger list released by Malaysia Airlines shows the plane was carrying
193 Dutch nationals (including one with dual US nationality), 43 Malaysians
(including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons (including
one with dual South African nationality), four Germans, four Belgians, three
from the Philippines, and one each from Canada and New Zealand.
The UN Security Council has called for a full and independent international
investigation into the crash
OSCE monitors say pro-Russian gunmen allowed them to
visit more of the area on SaturdayPressure
on Russia
In
a statement the Ukrainian government complained that pro-Russian rebels had
removed 38 bodies from the site near the village of Grabove and taken them to a
morgue in the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
The BBC's Richard Galpin, who is at the crash site, says he saw bodies being
removed by emergency workers, but it was not clear where they were being taken,
nor whether the workers were loyal to the rebels or the government in Kiev.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who is visiting Ukraine, said he had
been "shocked" by the reported removals.
"As soon as we receive proof, we will not rest until those guilty are put to
trial - not only those who pulled the trigger, but also those who made it
possible," he said.
At the scene: Fergal Keane, BBC News, Grabove
The OSCE monitors were forced to walk to the field
where the plane crashed
At the main site the bodies were without covering. Some lay alone. Others
were grouped together amid the twisted metal, the bags and cases, the child's
playing cards, the guide books, the laptop computer, the duty free whiskey
bottle, the woman's hat.
A militiaman with the nickname "Grumpy" - he was squat and barrel-chested
with poor teeth and carried a machine gun - harangued me when I asked if the
rebels would now stop fighting.
"You are only here because foreigners are dead," he said. And the old story
was repeated, the same I have heard on numerous roadblocks - the Western media
were all capitalists doing the bidding of their American and EU masters.
When the OSCE turned up in a convoy "Grumpy" came into his own. Now he was a
man of power. He halted the OSCE and told them they would have to go forward on
foot.
The world community, Ukraine added, must put pressure on Russia to pull back
its "terrorists" and allow Ukrainian and international experts to carry out
their inquiry.
Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong-Lai said it
would be "inhumane" if Malaysian experts would not be given access to the crash
site.
He also expressed concern that the site was not properly sealed and could be
tampered with.
The monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) are now at the site.
The UK urged Russia to use its influence over the
rebels to improve access to the site
OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said access had improved from Friday and
that the monitors were seeing parts of the field they had not seen before.
However he added that their movements were still being restricted. "We are
unarmed civilians, we are not in the position to argue heavily with people with
heavy arms," he said.
The monitors' mission is to observe the site pending the arrival of
international experts being sent to investigate the cause of the crash.
'Act of terrorism'
On Saturday the Russian foreign ministry urged both sides in the Ukrainian
conflict "to do everything possible to give international experts access to the
aircraft crash".
Earlier, the Russian defence ministry accused the West of waging an
information war against Moscow. It challenged Ukraine to produce details of what
its anti-aircraft systems were doing at the time.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte - who discussed the matter in a phone
conversation on Saturday - called on the EU to "reconsider its approach to
Russia" following the disaster.
Separatist leaders have denied earlier reports that the plane's flight
recorders - the so-called black boxes - had been found.
Ukraine's government called Thursday's disaster an "act of terrorism" and
released what they say are intercepted phone
conversations that proved the plane was shot down by separatists.
Ukrainian officials also said they had evidence Russian military personnel
operated a sophisticated Buk missile system that is thought to have been used to
shoot down the plane.
The pro-Russian separatists claim a Ukrainian air force jet brought down the
airliner.
Family who suffered loss in March tragedy ripped apart again after Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people is shot down
Pieces of wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 a day after it crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
Two of the 28 Australians killed when MH17 was shot down over Ukraine were members of a family who lost two other relatives when Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in March, it has emerged.
Kaylene Mann, from Queensland, lost her brother and sister-in-law, Rod and Mary Burrows, when the plane vanished after diverting from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route. On Friday, she learned her stepdaughter, Maree Rizk, and Rizk's husband, Albert – both estate agents – had been on board the flight downed over Ukraine. "It's just ripped our guts again," Mann's brother, Greg Burrows, told reporters.
They were among 298 victims of the apparent missile attack, almost two thirds of whom were Dutch nationals, with Malaysians and Australians the next most numerous. Among the dead were a series of leading researchers into HIV/Aids, holidaying families, a member of the Dutch senate, football supporters, teachers, a nun and a relative of Malayia's prime minister, Najib Razak.
The search for remains in Ukraine, involving emergency workers, police officers and off-duty coal miners, has recovered 181 bodies so far.
While the exact details remain uncertain, the latest figures indicate that those killed in the disaster included 189 Dutch nationals, 44 people from Malaysia – including 15 crew members and two infants – the 27 Australians, 12 people from Indonesia – including one infant – nine Britons, four people from Germany and Belgium, three Philippines nationals and one person each from Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The origin of the remaining victims has yet to be determined.
Flags were flying at half mast across the Netherlands as grieving relatives began to gather in a hotel at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, from where the flight took off for Kuala Lumpur. The country's prime minister has called for an independent investigation, saying the bereaved "have the right to know what happened".
Among the Dutch nationals on the flight was Joep Lange, a pioneering Aids researcher, who is reported to have died along with his wife, Jacqueline van Tongeren. The couple reportedly had five daughters.
Some accounts say dozens of those on MH17 were on their way to Melbourne in Australia for the 20th International Aids conference, which starts on Sunday. The flight to Kuala Lumpur had been due to fly on to Australia.
Denis Napthine, the premier of Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, said: "There's been confirmed a number of senior people who were coming out here who were researchers, who were medical scientists, doctors, people who've been at the forefront of dealing with Aids across the world."
Lange, a professor at the academic medical centre at the University of Amsterdam, had researched HIV/Aids for more than 30 years and was known as an advocate for access to affordable drugs in poorer countries, colleagues said.
"He's one of the icons of the whole area of research. His loss is massive," Richard Boyd, professor of immunology at Monash University in Melbourne, told Reuters.
"The cure for Aids may have been on that plane, we just don't know," Trevor Stratton, an HIV/Aids consultant attending a pre-event in Sydney, told Australia's ABC. "You can't help but wonder about the kind of expertise on that plane."
A Briton on board the plane was also en route to the Aids conference. Glenn Thomas, 49, was a media officer at the World Health Organisation in Geneva, and a former BBC journalist.
Also confirmed among the British victims were John Alder and Liam Sweeney, fans of Newcastle United heading to New Zealand to watch the Premier League football team play a pre-season tour, and student Richard Mayne.
According to Malaysia's Star newspaper, the country's prime minister lost a family member. Among those on board was the 83-year-old second wife of his late grandfather. Among the Dutch passengers was Willem Witteveen, a Labour member of the country's senate.
Many others on the flight were holidaymakers, including several children. Nick Norris, 68, from the Australian city of Perth, was travelling with his three grandchildren, Mo Maslin, 12, Evie Maslin, 10, and Otis Maslin, 8, according to a statement from his family.
One Dutchman, Sander Essers, told Agence France-Presse that his brother, sister-in-law and their children, aged 17 and 20, died while travelling to Borneo to explore the jungle.
Another Dutch national, Cor Pan, had been heading for a beach holiday in Malaysia. He posted a photo of the plane on Facebook just before it took off, with the message, "If it should disappear, this is what it looks like," a joking reference to MH370. Pan was travelling with his girlfriend, named so far only as Neeltje, who owned a flower shop in the fishing town of Volendam. A note taped to the front of the shop on Friday read: "Dear Cor and Neeltje. This is unwanted, unbelievable and unfair. Rest in peace. We will never forget you."
Among confirmed Australian victims were Sister Philomene Tiernan, a 77-year-old teacher at a Catholic school in Sydney, and another teacher, Frankie Davison, from Melbourne, who died with her husband, Liam.
In Kuala Lumpur, Akmar Mohamad Noor, 67, said her older sister was coming to visit the family for the first time in five years. "She called me just before she boarded the plane and said, 'See you soon.'"
