MH17: Dutch and Australian experts forced to delay mission due to fighting | World | The Guardian
Netherlands-led group of 49 investigators that will attempt to recover bodies and examine site in eastern Ukraine delayed
By Paul Farrell in Canberra, and agencies
Sunday 27 July 2014 06.43 EDT
International experts postponed their plans on Sunday to go to the site where a Malaysian airliner crashed because of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian troops in the area.
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Alexander Hug, deputy head for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's monitoring mission in Ukraine, told reporters: "We heard indications there's fighting going on." Flanked by Dutch and Australian experts, he added: "The situation on the ground appears to be unsafe ... We therefore decided to deploy tomorrow morning. Fighting in the area will most likely affect crash site."
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The Australian PM, Tony Abbott, had earlier announced Dutch and Australian investigators would get greater access to the site of the MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine under the terms of a new deal. The unarmed Dutch-led group would have 49 personnel on site on Sunday, 11 of which would be Australian, Abbott said.
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Abbott said: "The Australian federal police will be deployed to the site as part of an unarmed, Dutch-led international humanitarian mission. Our objective is principally to recover the bodies. That is what the Australian people expect of us, that is what grieving families around the world deserve. Our intention, under the auspices of local people, is to take over the site to ensure that the recovery of remains can go ahead as swiftly and effectively as possible."
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Abbott said the objective of the mission was "to get in, to get cracking, to get out", and stressed it was a humanitarian, police-led operation. Some Australian defence personnel have also been sent to Europe to back up the police, but would not be sent to the site.
Abbot said: "This is a risky mission
but all the professional advice that I have is that the safest way to conduct it is unarmed, as part of a police-led humanitarian mission. What needs to happen on the site is plainly that a professional team needs to be deployed to recover remains, assisting where possible with investigation and as far as possible to remove wreckage." There are 170 Australian police officers standing by in Ukraine, with 20 more in the Netherlands.
The Australian federal police commissioner, Tony Negus, said the mission would allow Dutch and Australian forces to undertake forensic tests at the site. "The first priority is to locate the remains of any victims still on the site. We will also conduct a forensic examination of the site, and as you well know and as has been well publicised, the site has been contaminated and raked over many times so we are realistic about what the forensic utility of actually doing that would be," he said.
Australian and Dutch officials have been negotiating for days to allow officers from both countries to gain access to the site of the crash in Ukraine.
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