Malaysia Airlines MH17: Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte warns Vladimir Putin of 'last chance' to help recover bodies

Updated

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte says Russia's president has "one last chance" to show he is serious about helping rescuers recover the bodies of the victims of crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

The attack on the plane has claimed the lives of 28 Australians and eight permanent Australian residents, who were among the 298 passengers and crew on board.

Mr Rutte's comments come amid reports pro-Russian rebels have taken 38 bodies from the site.

Minutes after what he described as a "very intense" conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Mr Rutte said: "He has one last chance to show he means to help."

Mr Rutte said the leaders of Germany, Britain and Australia also shared his view.

"I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot," he said, referring to allegations that bodies of the passengers, including 193 of his countrymen, were being allowed to decay at the scene.

He [Putin] has one last chance to show he means to help Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said people in the Netherlands are "angry and furious" by news that bodies are being dragged around the site.

After meeting with the Ukrainian president, Mr Timmermans said he wants to know who is responsible for shooting down the airliner.

"We're already in shock, but what the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, the site being treated improperly, has really created a shock in the Netherlands," he said.

"People are angry, are furious at what they hear. So my plea to you also, Mr President, is please help us bring our people back so that they can be buried in a decent way."

Dutch forensic experts left for the crash site on Saturday but continue to encounter difficulties in identifying and repatriating the bodies of the 193 Dutch citizens on the flight, he said.

International monitors have now been allowed to visit more of the crash site, though gunmen still stopped them approaching some of the wreckage.

In sometimes tense scenes with pro-Russian rebels clearly uncomfortable at having observers and the press present, a top official at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said access had improved since they arrived on Friday.

"We have now had the possibility to see a bit more of this rather large scene. We have observed the situation here as it was presented to us," said Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine.

On Friday, a group of monitors were hampered in their work by "armed personnel who acted in a very impolite and unprofessional manner".

Securing the site and preserving evidence is crucial for investigators to try to piece together what, and who, caused the airliner to plunge into the steppe.

Russia agrees international investigation should go ahead

Meanwhile Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state John Kerry agreed both countries will use their influence on the two sides of the Ukraine conflict to end hostilities, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Both agreed that all evidence from the downed Malaysian airplane, including flight recorders, should be made available for international investigation and that experts should be given access to work on the site.

"[They] agreed on the main - it is necessary to ensure an absolutely unbiased, independent and open international investigation of the Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine on July 17," the ministry said of the telephone call between Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) should play a leading role in the investigation, it said.

The two leaders said that all sides should continue to work towards the goals outlined on April 17 in Geneva aimed at ending hostilities and launching a transparent settlement process involving all Ukrainian regions.

"Lavrov and Kerry have agreed to use the influence of Russia and the United States on the opposing Ukrainian sides in order to encourage them to move in that direction," the ministry said.

"It was stressed that the conflict in Ukraine has no military solution and can only be resolved peacefully through the elaboration of a national consensus."

Reuters

Topics: disasters-and-accidents, unrest-conflict-and-war, netherlands, russian-federation, ukraine

First posted