U.S. officials say there is evidence the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was fired from a Russian-made SA-11 or buk system, and that evidence points to pro-Russian separatists as those responsible. Julian Barnes joins Lunch Break with Lee Hawkins. Photo: Getty/File Photo

U.S. officials say there is evidence the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was fired from a Russian-made SA-11 or buk system, and that evidence points to pro-Russian separatists as those responsible. Julian Barnes joins Lunch Break with Lee Hawkins. Photo: Getty/File Photo

THE tragedy of MH17 has hit the highest office in Malaysia with Prime Minister Najib Razak’s step-grandmother perishing on board the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that crashed in Ukraine.

Hishammuddin Hussein, a cousin of Najib’s, said 83-year-old Siti Amirah was “on the flight”. Siti Amirah was also Hishammuddin’s step-grandmother.

“Pls pray 4 her,” he wrote on his Twitter feed above a photo of her in an Islamic headscarf.

The country’s defence minister’s tweet confirmed an earlier report in the Star newspaper that said Siti Amirah had embarked alone in Amsterdam on board flight MH17 en route to the Indonesian city of Jogjakarta.

She was scheduled to transit at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The Boeing 777 passenger jet carrying 298 people came down in flames late on Thursday in cornfields in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, with US officials saying it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

Siti Amirah, a native of Indonesia, was headed there to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, Islam’s biggest festival, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Star report quoted a family spokeswoman as saying.

Both Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim-majority countries.

“She was a very, very nice lady. A kind-hearted, beautiful woman. She was a homemaker who looked after my grandfather very well. We called her ‘ibu’ (mother),” the family spokeswoman told the newspaper.

She was once married to Mohammad Noah Omar, Najib’s maternal grandfather, as his second wife.

Najib, 60, is the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister Abdul Razak, while Hishammuddin is the son of the country’s third premier Hussein Onn.

The mothers of Hishammuddin and Najib are siblings.

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Malaysia Airlines to retire MH17 flight code

Malaysia Airlines have decided to retire the flight number MH17 as a mark of respect to its 298 passengers and crew who died in the deadly missile attack over Ukraine.

The new designation for the route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is to be known as MH19. It will start flying under that number from July 25.

The new number comes as the passenger manifest of all passenger names and crew was released by the airline after all attempts to contact family and friends had been exhausted.

The flight manifest confirms the number of 27 Australian passport holders who have perished in the missile attack.

Russia ‘destroying evidence’

Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of helping separatist rebels destroy evidence at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines plane shot down in rebel-held territory — a charge the rebels denied.

As dozens of victims’ bodies lay in bags by the side of the road baking in the summer heat, international monitors at the crash site on Saturday said they were still being hampered by heavily armed rebels.

“Some of the body bags are open and the damage to the corpses is very, very bad. It is very difficult to look at,” OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told reporters in a phone call from the site, where the smell of decaying bodies was unmistakable.

He said the 24-member delegation was given further access Saturday to the crash site but their movements were being limited by the rebels.

DNA collected from relatives

Dutch police have sent teams to visit relatives of those killed in the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine to collect DNA and other data to help identify the dead.

“We sent out 80 investigators this morning, working in pairs, to visit 40 addresses,” national police forensics spokesman Ad Kraszewski said.

Over the next few days, police will visit relatives of the 192 Dutch nationals killed in Thursday’s crash over a rebel-held area of Ukraine.

“They have also started collecting information about the missing, for instance simple things such as height or hair colour, but also distinguishing marks such as scars from operations or tattoos, what they’re of and where they are,” Mr Kraszewski added.

There are three internationally accepted fail-safe ways of identifying a body, he said: fingerprints, dental records and DNA.

“If the data collected in the Netherlands and Ukraine matches then that’s an identification, if it’s 100 per cent then the body can come back to the Netherlands,” Mr Kraszewski said.

Airline asks relatives to call

Malaysia Airlines is appealing to the family members or friends of those onboard MH17 to contact the airline.

The airline together with various foreign embassies have made every effort to establish contact with the next-of-kin but is still unable to identify many more family members. They are advised to contact Malaysia Airlines’ Family Support Centre at +603 7884 1234 (in Malaysia). Australians can also call the Malaysia Airlines Sydney office on (02) 9364 3534.

Merkel, Putin agree on MH17 probe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed on the need for an international investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and for rapid access to the crash site.

The two leaders, who spoke by phone, “agreed that an international, independent commission under the direction of ICAO (UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation) should quickly have access to the site of the accident ... to shed light on the circumstances of the crash and move the victims,” said a German government statement issued on Saturday.

A Kremlin statement on the same phone call said “both sides stressed the importance of a thorough and objective investigation of all circumstances relating to what has happened”.

Painful weeks ahead, says PM

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has vowed to deliver dignity and justice for the 28 Australian victims and their families devastated by the attack on MH17.

The Prime Minister’s pledge was delivered during an emotional press conference this afternoon where Mr Abbott expressed his disgust that Russian-backed rebels where still in control of the crash site.

“Right now, for all we know, this site is controlled by Russian-backed rebels,’’ Mr Abbott said.

“Right now, for all we know, bodies remain strewn over the fields of the eastern Ukraine and armed rebels are trampling the site. It is absolutely vital that an international investigation begins as soon as possible.”

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Mr Abbott refused to rule out banning Russian President Vladimir Putin from G20 talks in Australia in November if he failed to cooperate with the investigation.

Vowing to pursue a binding resolution of the United Nations to demand a ceasefire allows international investigators to secure the site, Mr Abbott said anyone who obstructed their efforts was “no friend of justice.’’

“Australia will do whatever we humanly can to ensure this matter is investigated. Our objective is to ensure for the dead and the living dignity, respect and justice,’’ he said.

“298 innocent people have been killed.’’

Mr Abbott stood by his Friday remarks over the possible involvement of Russian-backed separatists that Russia had described overnight as “unacceptable.”

“It’s clear that all the evidence at this stage suggests that this aircraft was shot down from territories controlled by Russian-backed rebels,’’ Mr Abbott said.

“This is a problem, a very serious problem. Australia takes a very dim view of countries that facilitates the killing of Australians.

“Every day we delay the site is contaminated. The site needs to be secure. Frankly, anyone who tries to obstruct this is no friend of justice, no friend of peace.”

He said he had spoken to world leaders overnight including US President Barack Obama, Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

“Every head of government I’ve spoke to is full of shock at what happened.” he said

The repatriation of bodies is likely to take weeks, not days, Mr Abbott warned.

“As a nation we need to prepare ourselves for difficult and painful weeks ahead as we strive to find out precisely what has happened,” he said.

“I don’t believe any Australian, any human being, could fail to be moved by what we’ve seen.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will fly to New York tonight to lead Australia’s United Nations campaign to secure a binding resolution.

“We are determined to ascertain what happened, why it happened and who is responsible,’’ she said.

Australian Federal Police investigators and Department of Foreign Affairs staff are also on their way to the region.

It comes after Russia described Abbott’s tough stance over the possible involvement of Moscow-backed rebels in the MH17 disaster as “unacceptable”.

“Without bothering himself about evidence and operating only on speculation, Mr. T. Abbott assigned guilt,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Abbott’s statements are unacceptable.”

The crash scene

Meanwhile, a team of international monitors have arrived at the plane’s crash site in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. This comes amid reports that Pro Russian rebels fired warning shots and blocked access to the site by staff from the Organisdation for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE).

However insurgents did allow a 30-person delegation from the OSCE team to inspect the location after a few minutes of negotiations.

Local emergency crews are picking through terrible carnage at the site, placing dozens of sticks with white rags in the ground to mark where bodies lay.

Australian journalist Demjin Doroschenko had earlier described the “smell of death” and evidence of looting at the site with Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 came down.

“It’s like a charnel house,’’ he said.

“There’s bits of bodies and aircraft and children everywhere.

“Last night things were still burning and on fire, it was just terrible.

“Once I knew there were Australians on the plane I went straight there.

“I’ve seen 55 bodies and pieces of aircraft strewn all over the place. The hardest thing is you are walking along and there’s a child’s body just lying there.

“There’s bits of aircraft wings, there’s plane seats with bodies in it.”

Thieves steal from MH17 victims

Horrifically, reports of looting are emerging from the MH17 crash site.

Adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko has reported that “terrorists” have been stealing valuables belonging to the victims from the scattered debris.

“Death-hunters collecting Were not Only Cash money and Jewelry of the crashed Boing passengers died but Also the credit cards of the Victims (sic),” he posted on Facebook.

At the vast crash site, woefully under-equipped emergency workers from surrounding towns are picking through the grisly carnage, recovering corpse after corpse.

A child’s teddy bear, a guidebook on Bali and a children’s card game rest amid the debris of MH17, which is scattered for kilometres.

Painstakingly, local firefighters, who are clearly overwhelmed by the scale of the tragedy, make their way through the wreckage, stopping here and there to plant sticks tied with white rags to identify the location of some of the 298 victims.

“Anatoly, come over here. There are a lot more in this field,” a fireman shouts to his colleague as a light rain falls.

Hours after the disaster, journalists at the site saw dozens of severely mutilated corpses still lying at the crash site after eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane disintegrate in mid-air.

An arm could be seen poking from under a seat lying in a ditch. Nearby, luggage was piled up on a slope.

Two engines, a piece of a landing gear and chunks of the fuselage dotted with windows were strewn about as melted metal solidified in pools.

The sound of dogs barking could be heard in the distance.

Separatist fighters at the site said they will shoot any animals that come to scavenge there.

Calls to ban Putin from G20

Labor leader Bill Shorten has backed calls to ban Russian President Vladimir Putin from attending the G20 talks in Australia if he fails to cooperate.

Mr Putin is scheduled to arrive in Brisbane in November for talks with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Mr Shorten said today Labor would support any moves to ban Mr Putin if he refused to cooperate with authorities.

“If the Russian Federation will not co-operate to help resolve and get to the heart of what has happened here, I don’t think Australians would welcome him coming to the G20,’’ Mr Shorten said.

“For an outside nation to have supplied these Ukranian rebels with the weaponary of war and murder is a very, very reckless and stupid act.”

Mr Abbott has left his options open when asked if he would consider a ban on Friday.

He said any “self respecting’’ country would consider its options.

“Obviously, we want to ensure that visitors to this country have goodwill to this country,’’ Mr Abbott said.

World demands answers

US President Barack Obama said overnight pro-Russia rebels believed to be behind the attack wouldn’t have done it without the help of Russia.

The White House has confirmed that President Obama spoke with Mr Abbott this morning and the Prime Minister is expect to hold a press conference at 12.30pm (AEST).

The UN Security Council has demanded a full investigation, adding to mounting global demands to find those responsible for apparently shooting down the Boeing 777.

The Times is reporting this morning that the 298 passengers and crew on board Flight MH17 were killed because a Ukrainian rebel unit was operating a Russian-made missile system without a radar that would have alerted them to the fact that the aircraft was a passenger jet.

Overnight, Mr Abbott has discussed the tragedy and the need for a full investigation with world leaders including British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Prime Minister has also spoken to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

After the talks, Mr Cameron said those responsible must be brought to account.

“I’ve been on the telephone today to the Australian Prime Minister and the Dutch Prime Minister — they’ve suffered appalling loss of life as well,’’ Mr Cameron said.

“It is an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident that has taken place and we have got to get to the bottom of what happened and how it happened. We have some information but we need to find more.

“If, as seems possible, the plane was brought down then those responsible must be held to account and we must lose no time in doing that. It is an absolutely shocking incident; it cannot be allowed to stand.’’

Mr Abbott has not directly blamed Russia for the attack, but has expressed his anger at Moscow’s response to date and the Russian ambassador to Australia’s attempts to blame the Ukranian Government in talks with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday.

“This aircraft didn’t come down through accident. It was shot down. It did not crash, it was downed and it was downed over territory controlled by Russian backed rebels,’’ Mr Abbott said.

“It was downed by a missile which seems to have been launched by Russian backed rebels.

Again, I want to stress that Australia takes a very dim view of countries which are facilitating the killing of Australian citizens. We take a very dim view of this.

“Based on what we are hearing from Russia, it is hard to have much confidence that there will be the kind of open and honest and transparent cooperation that you would expect.

“This really is a test for Russia. It really is a test for Russia — how transparent and fair dinkum is it going to be? There can be no excuses. No buck-passing. No blame shifting. There has to be absolute full cooperation with an impartial international inquiry.”

US President Barack Obama said overnight the incident was “an outrage of unspeakable proportions.”

“There are only certain types of anti-aircraft missiles that can reach up 30,000 feet and shoot down a passenger jet,” Obama said.

“We have increasing confidence that it came from areas controlled by the separatists.”

Calling the plane’s destruction an “outrage of unspeakable proportions”, he said the separatists wouldn’t have had the capability to shoot down the plane “without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”

President Obama said it was still unclear yet which groups had ordered the strike and whether the plane was shot down in error after it was mistaken for a military jet.

U.S. officials say there is evidence the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was fired from a Russian-made SA-11 or buk system, and that evidence points to pro-Russian separatists as those responsible. Julian Barnes joins Lunch Break with Lee Hawkins. Photo: Getty/File Photo U.S. officials say there is evidence the missile that downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was fired from a Russian-made SA-11 or buk system, and that evidence points to pro-Russian separatists as those responsible. Julian Barnes joins Lunch Break with Lee Hawkins. Photo: Getty/File Photo

The White House has confirmed that President Obama spoke with Mr Abbott this morning.

“The President expressed condolences on behalf of the American people to the Australian families who lost loved ones on board the flight,’’ The White House said in a statement.

“The two leaders discussed the importance of a prompt, full, unimpeded and transparent international investigation, and they stressed the need for immediate access by international investigators to the crash site. The President underscored continuing US support and co-operation with Australia as this issue unfolds, and the two leaders committed to remaining in close touch moving forward.”

Interpol to help recover MH17 victims

INTERPOL on Friday said it will send a team in the next 48 hours to help identify victims killed by the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in east Ukraine.

Experts from Interpol’s disaster identification squad and missing people’s units will be deployed to the site, where 298 died after the apparent downing of the airliner in the rebel-held region.

“International cooperation is essential in ensuring their accurate, dignified and speedy recovery and identification,” said Secretary General Ronald Noble in a statement.

“Having spoken with Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, I have assured him of our continued assistance for as long as it is required.”

Interpol agents will join some 30 observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe who arrived at the disaster site on Friday to help supervise the handling of the remains of victims from at least nine different countries.

Teams from the international police agency helped to identify victims after the tsunami in Asia a decade ago and the crash of the Air France AF 447 in 2009.

Europe’s air safety agency has “strongly recommended” that flights avoid both eastern Ukraine and Crimean airspace following the apparent downing of a Malaysian civilian aircraft in rebel-held territory.

“Due to the unsafe situation created by a conflict on the eastern border of Ukraine and the situation over Crimea, where more than one Air Traffic Service provider may be controlling flight within the same airspace, careful attention should be given” and flyovers avoided, the European Aviation Security Agency said in a statement.

After the crash Thursday of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 Ukraine declared the east of its territory a no-fly zone, according to Eurocontrol, the body that manages airspace control over Europe.

A Dutch team of forensic investigators left for Ukraine with Timmermans on Friday evening, a ministry spokesman told AFP shortly after 1700 GMT.

Earlier the foreign minister said he would accompany the team to “negotiate free access to the area in order for the experts to do their jobs”.

Relatives could be flown to crash site

Meanwhile, Australian relatives of those who died on flight MH17 will be offered the opportunity to visit the crash site in eastern Ukraine with other next of kin, Malaysia Airlines has confirmed.

Australia on Friday also requested the UN Security Council pass a resolution granting independent investigators access to the site.

Canberra’s representative on the council further demanded that Russia “end its provocations and any support for separatist forces”.

Malaysia Airlines intends to fly relatives “at an appropriate moment” to the Ukraine to visit the area where 298 passengers, including 28 Australians, died on Thursday.

“History shows when analysing these sorts of events that people need to go to the place where the accident occurred,” vice president Huib Gorter told reporters at Amsterdam Airport.

“There is an emotional need to do so. That is a fact of life.”

The official noted, however, that the crash site was some 500km from Kiev in extremely difficult terrain.

“We need to be sure of safety and logistics. If we do it, we’ve got to do it well.”

Australia has sent a team of consular officials to Ukraine.

In New York, Canberra’s security council representative, Philippa King, said the perpetrators of any crime had to be brought to justice swiftly.

She called for a “full, thorough and impartial international investigation” into the incident.

“There must be immediate preservation of the crash site and unfettered access for independent investigators,” she said.

“Safe access must also be provided to allow recovery of the bodies of those who have lost their lives in this tragedy.”

The council issued a statement calling for just such an investigation, but Ms King said that wasn’t enough.

“Given the gravity of the incident that is not sufficient indication of the council’s resolve,” she told the emergency gathering in New York.

“Australia believes the council should adopt a resolution which reinforces the need for access to be granted to the crash site and for a full, thorough, independent and international investigation.”

The Australian said Russia had a “crucial role to play” in de-escalating the crisis.

“It must end its provocations and any support for separatist forces.”

Flags would be flown at half mast across Australia today for the lives lost, Ms King said.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it came down in cornfields in a separatist-held region of east Ukraine.

The crash was the second major air disaster to hit Malaysia’s national carrier this year, after Flight MH370 went missing in March after disappearing from radar en route to Beijing.

Despite a huge international search operation no trace of the flight has yet been found.

Malaysia’s transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said MH17 was on “the right route on the right path”.

Malaysia had earlier drawn criticism for flying over a conflict zone but Mr Liow insisted that a number of other commercial flights from various carriers had used the same route in the hours before the crash.

Of the 298 passengers and 15 crew on board, 28 were Australian and 173 were Dutch, Malaysia Airlines confirmed.

Other passengers included 29 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, 9 from the UK, four each from Belgium and Germany, three from the Philippines, one from Canada and one from New Zealand.

In the Netherlands a national day of mourning has been called and at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where the doomed flight took off, friends and relatives of the victims were seen in tears. Dutch television, meanwhile, broadcast harrowing images of passports found in the wreck, including those of children.

Artur Laumann, 36, whose friend died on the flight, said: “Your Prime Minister Tony Abbott has spoken in very strong language but here, we are in shock. I think we should be as angry as Australia and I think that very soon we will see our politicians speak out loudly too.”

Mr Abbot had earlier criticised the Russian ambassador’s response to the crash as “deeply, deeply unsatisfactory” after he tried to blame Ukraine for the atrocity.

Of the 28 confirmed Australian victims at least one had relatives who had also lost family on the MH370 flight.

Irene and George Burrows, from Biloela in central Queensland, were still mourning the loss of son Rodney and daughter-in-law Mary on MH370 when they were hit by the tragic news that their step-grandaughterMaree Rizk and her husband Albert from Sunbury near Melbourne were killed in the MH17 explosion.