Updated August 01, 2014 10:41:08A small Australian and Dutch reconnaissance team has reached the cra...
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MH17: International investigators reach Malaysia Airlines crash
site amid shelling Updated August 01, 2014 10:41:08 A small
Australian and Dutch reconnaissance team has reached the crash site
of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 after four days of failed attempts
to make it across a battlefront to the wreckage. The Ukrainian
parliament on Thursday gave the go-ahead for Australian police and
investigators to go to the crash site as part of an international
recovery operation. Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told
Lateline the advance party had arrived and reported hearing
shelling near the crash site in the "middle of a war zone". She
said there was "fighting going on" - despite Ukraine's military
announcing a day-long pause in its offensive to oust pro-Russian
rebels in the country's east. The main group of investigators
continue to be frustrated in their attempts to reach the site and
have been unable to leave the city of Donetsk. In a statement, the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the
Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) monitors, along with four
Australian and Dutch experts, had arrived safely at the crash site
using a new access route. The small scouting team took more than
six hours to check roads and find a way past various battlefronts.
Ms Bishop told Lateline the mission was "extremely dangerous".
"They are in the middle of a military conflict that has been raging
for months so it's an exceedingly dangerous mission but we are
determined not to take unacceptable risks," she said. "We are
negotiating every step of the way with the Ukraine government and
with the separatists and we are doing this day by day."
Spurred on by the success of a small team in reaching the MH17
crash site, inspectors will now try again to push through battle
lines in bigger numbers. Investigators will try and secure a
guarantee of no fighting along their designated route. But heavy
fighting continues on all sides of the crash area. Wheat fields
containing debris and potentially human remains have caught fire.
The Australian police officers have also received approval to carry
weapons from Ukraine's parliament, although Ms Bishop said they
would only be armed "if necessary". "What this [vote] means is that
we have an insurance policy in place that, if necessary, only if
necessary, both the Dutch and the Australian personnel can bring
arms into the country," she said earlier on Thursday. "But we are
not taking arms onto the site. Our convoy will not be armed. It's a
police-led humanitarian mission." A total of 38 Australian citizens
and residents were among the 298 people killed when the plane was
shot down. The Government says the remains of up to 80 bodies are
yet to be recovered, and it is determined to return those victims
to their homes. Ms Bishop says the team will begin on Friday (local
time) to retrieve bodies and belongings known to be at the site,
and to gather evidence required for an investigation. "They have a
very challenging task ahead of them to be investigating a crash
site that is now two weeks out," she said. Palmer urges return of
AFP 'before something happens to them' Analysis: Phil Williams The
ABC correspondent told ABC News 24 the situation is fluid: This was
supposed to be a day of ceasefire. Well, while they were on the
site, they could hear fighting. As soon as they left the site we're
told fighting resumed on the site. So it's still an extremely
volatile area. There's a plan to get the 50, the whole group there,
but of course it all depends on the situation. It's an hour to
hour, minute to minute proposition and they could be turned back at
any time as they have in the last five days. As we've been told
repeatedly by the Foreign Minister, by the PM, it's a case of
getting in, do the job and get out. If only they could.
And we simply don't know at this stage how long this process is
going to take, or whether in fact they may have to actually
withdraw from Donetsk at some point and try and come in another
way. Federal MP Clive Palmer has declared the Australian Federal
Police should be brought home immediately, because their lives
should not be put at risk to recover the remaining victims of the
MH17 plane crash. The leader of the Palmer United Party has told
the ABC's AM program that the Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs
Minister have done all they can, but the AFP's mission should be
abandoned, even if access to the site is improving. "I think we've
got to get them out of there, as long as there is fighting taking
place their lives could be at risk," he said. "I'm very reluctant
to say this, but we've got to protect these people before something
happens to them." Mr Palmer says it is time to accept that it may
not be possible to recover all of the remains. "I just don't think
it's realistic to have a lot of people who are alive worrying about
recovering remains that's going to put anyone's life in danger, to
be honest with you, I just can't see the point of it," he told AM.
"I don't believe, that if it was my family I'd want to see other
Australians killed just to recover remains, to be honest with you,
and I don't think any of the families would want to put other
families' husbands and wives at risk." Mr Palmer does not believe
arming the police would improve the safety of their mission.
"Certainly we don't want armed people there because it'll only
provoke an incident, and that's not what we want," he said. The
leader of the Palmer United Party hasn't been given a security
briefing by the Government, and has not sought one. But he says
there is a clear understanding in the international community that
pro-Russian rebels are responsible for shooting down the Malaysian
airlines plane two weeks ago, and he questions the need to gather
forensic evidence at the site. "I just think that's rubbish to be
honest with you, we know the rebels shot them down, and I don't
think anything you find at the site will change that view that
people have got," Mr Palmer said. Moscow denies Western accusations
that it has armed and supported rebels who are fighting Ukrainian
forces in eastern Ukraine. The day-long pause in fighting in the
country's east was announced following a plea from the United
Nations for a truce to allow a stalled probe into the downing of
flight MH17 to go ahead. Fighting between Moscow-backed rebels and
government troops in the area had been intensifying since the
airliner was shot down on July 17.
"We have taken a decision not to conduct military operations on
this so-called 'day of quiet'," military spokesman Oleksiy
Dmytrashkivsky said. He said the move was in response to an appeal
by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to halt fighting. ABC/wires
Photo: A woman walks out of a damaged block of flats carrying her
belongings following what locals say was recent shelling by
Ukrainian forces in central Donetsk. Donetsk is where Australian
police were stationed while waiting to get access to the MH17 crash
site. (Reuters: Sergei Karpukhin)
Photo: Australian couple Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski and Jerzy
Dyczynski lost their daughter Fatima in the crash, and visited the
wreckage site on July 27. (AFP: Bulent Kilic) Photo: An armed
pro-Russian separatist guards the crash site. (Reuters: Maxim
Zmeyev)
Photo: Flowers are left on a piece of the Malaysia Airlines
plane MH17 wreckage. (AFP: Bulent Kilic) Photo: A Malaysian
air-crash investigator works at the crash site. (Reuters: Maxim
Zmeyev)
Photo: Military men carry a coffin containing the remains of a
victim of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, during a ceremony
at Eindhoven Airbase. (AFP: Robin van Lonhuijsen) Photo: An
Australian flag catches the wind alongside the multitude of flowers
left at Schiphol Airport
in Amsterdam. (Audience submitted: Ellyn Cook) Photo: A convoy
of hearses, bearing remains of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH17 crash, are escorted along the A27 highway by military
police to Hilversum, Netherlands, where they were to be identified
by forensic experts, July 23, 2014. (Reuters: Marco de Swart )
Photo: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop (L), Governor-General Sir
Peter Cosgrove, (C), and wife Lynne, (R), watch as MH17 victims
return to Eindhoven Airbase, the Netherlands, July 23, 2014. (AAP:
Dan Himbrechts)
Photo: Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body
at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, near the
settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region on July 19, 2014.
(Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev) Photo: A Twitpic from Australia's
ambassador to Russia, Paul Myler, showing flowers and a note
reading 'Forgive us' left outside the Australian embassy in Moscow,
on July 19, 2014. Thirty-six Australian citizens and residents were
among 298 killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down
over Ukraine. (Twitter: Paul Myler (@PosolAustralia))
Photo: People gather during a candlelight vigil for the victims
of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, in Kuala Lumpur on July 19, 2014.
(AFP: Manan Vatsyayana) Photo: Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe monitors speak with a pro-Russian
separatist at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
(Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev) Photo: The wreckage of Malaysia Airlines
flight MH17 is pictured two days after crashed in a sunflower field
near the village of Rassipnoe, in rebel-held east Ukraine. (AFP:
Dominique Faget)
Photo: A pro-Russian separatist holds a stuffed toy found at
the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the settlement
of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, July 18, 2014.
(Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev )
Photo: Firefighters extinguish a fire, on July 17, 2014,
amongst the wreckage of Malaysia Airline flight MH17 that crashed
near Shaktarsk, Ukraine. (AFP: Alexander Khudoteply) Photo: A
pro-Russian separatist walks on part of the wreckage of the
Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 (Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev)
Photo: A firefighter sprays water to extinguish a fire amid the
smouldering wreckage. (AFP: Dominique Faget) Photo: An emergency
worker looks at the mangled wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines
flight MH17
plane that crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. (Reuters:
Maxim Zmeyev) Photo: Firefighters extinguish a fire among the
wreckage as night descends on the crash scene. (AFP: Alexander
Khudoteply)
Photo: People walk among the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines
Boeing 777 plane that crashed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine,
killing 298 people. (AFP: Dominique Faget) Photo: Alexander
Borodai, the self-proclaimed prime minister of the pro-Russian
separatist "Donetsk
People's Republic", visits the crash site, flanked by
bodyguards. (AFP: Dominique Faget) Photo: Men stand next to the
wreckage of the plane, which disappeared from radar screens before
plunging to earth. (AFP: Dominique Faget)
Photo: People walk past some of the wreckage. Early speculation
pointed to a surface-to-air missile shooting down the plane. (AFP:
Dominique Faget) Photo: Flowers and candles were left at a
makeshift memorial outside the Netherlands Embassy in
Kiev, Ukraine. (AFP: Sergei Supinsky) Photo: Akmar Binti Mohd
Noor, 67, whose sister was onboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
that crashed in Ukraine en route to Malaysia, cries at the Kuala
Lumpur International Airport. (AFP: Manan Vatsyayana)
Photo: Relatives of passengers onboard Malaysia Airlines flight
MH17 get on a bus at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam. (AFP: Olaf
Kraak) Photo: The BBC quoted one farm worker in the area as saying,
"I was working in the field on my
tractor when I heard the sound of a plane, then a bang and
shots". (Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev) Photo: Passenger luggage lies near
the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane. (AFP: Dominique
Faget)
Photo: Witness: "There was thick black smoke from a nearby
factory. From my balcony I saw a plane begin to descend from a
great height and then heard two explosions." (AFP: Dominique Faget)
Photo: An emergency worker at the site of the Malaysia Airlines
MH17 crash. (Reuters: Maxim
Zmeyev) Photo: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 sits at the G3
gate at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, before it took off for Kuala
Lumpur and crashed in Ukraine. (Reuters: Yaron Mofaz)
Photo: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 leaves Schiphol Airport in
Schiphol, the Netherlands, on July 17, 2014, before being shot down
over eastern Ukraine. (AFP: Fred Neeleman) Gallery: MH17 downed in
war-torn Ukraine Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, air-and-space,
accidents, disasters-and-accidents, world-politics, ukraine,
russian-federation First posted July 31, 2014 18:46:07
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-31/international-investigators-reach-mh17-site-in-ukraine/5639
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