Investigators start clearing MH17 site
Dutch and OSCE workers collect downed airliner debris
Workers in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic started gathering debris Sunday from the Malaysia Airlines plane that was downed on July 17 with the loss of 298 lives.
Dutch investigators and officials of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe are overseeing the operation. The remains will be transferred by trains into territory held by the Kyiv government for examination in Kharkiv.
Donetsk emergency services chief Alexander Kostrubitsky said the operation could take up to 10 days.
Since the aeroplane went down over ground occupied by anti-fascist resistance fighters battling the regime established by February’s EU-sponsored coup in Ukraine, Moscow and the West have traded accusations over responsibility.
Most countries accuse the separatist fighters of shooting it down, though critics have pointed out that Kyiv bears some blame for allowing civilian aircraft to fly over a warzone which was being bombed by its air force, making tragic accidents likely.
But others allege that there is evidence a Ukrainian fighter jet was responsible for the outrage. Russian television released a photograph purportedly showing a fighter firing a missile at an airliner on Friday, but critics say the airliner pictured appears to be a different model from MH17.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott used the platform of the G20 – held in Brisbane at the weekend – to “demand that Russia fully co-operate with the criminal investigation of the downing of MH17, one of the most terrible atrocities of recent times.”
And other global leaders including US President Barack Obama took the summit as an opportunity to berate Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Kyiv government’s failure to crush separatist rebels.
Mr Obama – who has presided over drone assassinations and bombing campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, helped Islamist fanatics overthrow the Libyan government in 2011 and sponsored far-right terrorists seeking to topple Venezuela’s elected government – claimed Russia was breaching the “international principle” that “you don’t invade other countries or finance proxies” to undermine them.
He said alleged Russian support for the anti-fascists in eastern Ukraine was a breach of the ceasefire agreement there, but did not criticise Kyiv for its own ceasefire violations.