MH17 probe team thwarted from reaching crash site for 2nd day

Investigators trying to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 have voiced their frustration as warnings of heavy fighting in the area forced them to abandon their efforts for the second day straight yesterday.

"We're really sick and tired of being delayed," Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (Osce) spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told CNN.

"We all know there are still human remains out there exposed to the elements, number one. Secondly, it is one of the biggest open crime scenes in the world as we speak, and it is not secured. There's no security perimeter around the 30- or 35-square-kilometre site."

A team of 45 unarmed Dutch and Australian police have been trying to reach the site but investigations have been hampered by loud explosions and reports of clashes between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian rebels, who call themselves the "Donetsk People's Republic”.

Australian authorities had warned yesterday that chances of the team reaching the crash site were not good, adding that the effort could take days despite negotiations for a ceasefire area that would allow investigators safe access to the site.

"It doesn't look good to be quite honest with you," Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Andrew Colvin was quoted as saying by AFP.

"Obviously, this fighting has taken us by surprise. If it is a genuine offensive to take back ground we may be some days before we can feel safe and secure to go back in there."

The clashes between Ukrainian military personnel and pro-Russian rebels had also caused the Netherlands to retract previous plans to send in an international armed mission to secure the site, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte saying it was “not realistic”.

In a separate report by AFP, Dutch police chief Gerard Bouman yesterday warned that the remains of some of the victims on board MH17 might never be found.

"I would love to give a guarantee that all the remains will come back, and all possessions, but... I believe the chances are not very good that we will get it all," he was quoted as saying in a briefing to Parliament in The Hague.

According to AFP, rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine had said on Sunday that a train carriage filled with personal belongings of the victims had been handed over to Dutch officials.

However, Dutch justice ministry spokesman Lodewijk Hekking told AFP on Monday that no handover had taken place and only a few items were in official hands so far.

Meanwhile, Bociurkiw said yesterday that investigators would try to reach the site again today.

"We will keep trying every day," he said in the CNN report.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was carrying 298 people, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, on July 17.

The Malaysian investigation team successfully recovered the remains of victims, where a total of 227 coffins had been delivered from Kharkiv, Ukraine, to Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The team also managed to recover two black boxes, after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak negotiated with separatist leader Alexander Borodai last week.

Najib is scheduled to hold a meeting with his Netherlands counterpart Mark Rutte tomorrow, to discuss the MH17 tragedy in Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will be making calls to "people on the ground" in a bid to ensure that investigators are allowed access to the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

The team of investigators had come within 12 kilometres of the site on their second attempt on Monday, SMH reported, but they were forced to back up following the fight. This is despite the fact that the forces, separatists and investigators had agreed to a ceasefire and the "creation of a humanitarian corridor".

"It is high time those commitments are honoured," the prime minister was quoted as saying to Macquarie Radio, adding that the situation was becoming "frustrating”.

"I'll be making phone calls later today to see what we can do… I'll be talking soon to people on the ground to make sure that it happens, it happens as quickly as possible and it happens as safely as possible."

The daily reported that Abbott's phone calls would most likely be limited to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the prime minister's envoy in Ukraine, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston who are in the troubled country.

"There are remains out there; there are bodies out there, we owe it to the dead, we owe it to the loved ones to get them back and that's what we are determined to do," he was reported as saying.

Bishop was previously quoted as saying that Australia "would not be deterred" from bringing home its nationals. Twenty-seven Australians were among the 298 who perished in the MH17 disaster after the plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile.

"We will do it again tomorrow, the same way until we can get to the crash site," she had said.

"Everyday we will assess the situation, we will assess the operational risk and decide whether to proceed or not."

She said that police officers would not be put in "harm's way”, adding that Australia would continue with its efforts to "retrieve the bodies of Australians". – July 29, 2014.