© ReutersMembers of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site Saturday.
Outrage grew Saturday over the rebel hold on the site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash that killed 298 people in eastern Ukraine, with European leaders calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to do more to use his influence to get them to hand over the site.
Days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed, killing 298 people, concerns are growing that rebel fighters are blocking access to the site and tampering with evidence.
World leaders and the rebels themselves have called for a transparent, credible investigation into the downing. But two days after the disaster, there has been little progress, with the site disorderly and investigations hampered by its location in separatist-held territory amid heavy fighting in other parts of the east.
Malaysia's transport minister, Liow Tiang Lai, expressed deep concern about the security of the site and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was "disgusted" by images showing rebels walking around with victims' personal items.
Comment: Oh puleeze. This is just whipping up the emotions of the Dutch and scoring political points by Rutte. How else is the site to be cleaned up??
"Mr. Putin must now take his responsibility," Mr. Rutte said, adding he had an intense conversation with the Russian leader by phone. "It's time for him to do what the world is expecting him to do."
Comment: Russia is doing the responsible thing: telling the world to wait for a proper analysis of the situation. They is also raising pertinent issues that the Ukraine and US governments should be addressing:
10 questions the Russians have for Ukraine after crash of MH17
One hundred and ninety-three Dutch citizens died on the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight, which the U.S. says was likely downed by a missile fired by Russian-aided separatists. New U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Moscow likely provided separatists in eastern Ukraine with sophisticated antiaircraft systems in recent days, matching evidence put forward by Ukraine.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and Mr. Putin also spoke on Saturday, and called for an international commission to get immediate access to the site. "The chancellor again called on President Putin to exercise his influence on the separatists," the spokesman said.
Ukrainian emergency personnel were allowed onto the site by the armed separatists and found 186 bodies over an area of 25 square kilometers (10 square miles), but had limited access and the rebels were confiscating evidence, a government spokesman said.
"There are federal emergency service workers at the scene....But they have no freedom of movement. They are not allowed to leave the zone [under the control of the separatists]. The terrorists are taking all evidence that they gather," said Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council. He didn't specify whether rebels were taking bodies, aircraft parts or other items.
Comment: More spin from Kiev.
On Saturday, however, there was no visible looting at the site, and many of the victims' items remained strewed about the rural field where the bulk of the debris landed.
Men in plain clothes assisted uniformed officers from the regional division of the national emergency service - which has tried to stay neutral - in gathering the decomposing bodies. But the scene was chaotic with no apparent overarching management. Though a few dozen armed rebel militants blocked the main road through the site, there were no cordons and no guards directly around the full perimeter of the crash site, which stretches for miles, bordering at least two different villages.
One TV journalist walked across the field and filmed himself two feet from what looked like part of the plane's rear. At one point, a separatist fired into the air. Another rebel pulled his gun on a journalist after becoming agitated.
Ukraine said Saturday that the separatists last week had been in possession of three medium-range missile systems capable of bringing down commercial or military aircraft, but the rebels shipped them to Russia hours after the Malaysia Airlines flight was reportedly shot down.
Mr. Putin has blamed Ukraine for creating the circumstances in which such an accident could happen, saying the Ukrainian government is therefore ultimately responsible for the disaster. He hasn't, however, accused Ukraine of shooting the missile, instead demanding a full, objective investigation.
Comment: And there you have it. The one world leader (probably the only one deserving of the title) who is calling for the proper course of action. Unfortunately it's not likely to be either full or objective. This would call forth uncomfortable facts that undermine the goals of the imperial West.
A multinational team, made up of investigators from ICAO, the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Malaysia and others, was gathering in Kiev and would be based there until the format of the investigation was fully established, a U.K. government spokesman said.
Russia's foreign ministry later called for the Interstate Aviation Committee, a Moscow-dominated group, to play a key role. The ministry accused foreign officials of putting pressure on the investigation by "announcing their versions of the reasons for the crash without evidence."
Its spokesman also said it had introduced visa bans for U.S. officials to "mirror" sanctions introduced against Russia over the conflict the day before the crash.
Alexander Borodai, head of the Donetsk People's Republic, told reporters his people are keeping the debris and bodies untouched so far, though emergency workers were packing them into bags as he spoke. He accused the international experts of dragging their feet and promised to guarantee their security on the territory his forces control.
"There are stray dogs and foxes rambling around and there is also a possibility of shelling from the other side, which all may damage the integrity of the crash site," he said. "We aren't in Africa, or the Antarctic. We are in the center of Europe, and I can't understand why they can't drive four hours from Kiev."
"It looks like they want to drag their feet to make the investigation incomplete, impossible. Possibly it is sabotage," he said.
The conflict in the region has created serious roadblocks for investigators, some of them literal. The road from the separatist stronghold of Donetsk to the crash site was guarded by at least 10 checkpoints, where rebels with guns frequently checked documents. International investigators looking to access the site have expressed concerns about safety in getting there.
Investigators want to secure critical evidence to determine what happened and ascertain the location of the so-called black boxes that store flight information and voice recordings from the conversation between pilot and co-pilot.
The Ukrainian government has no accurate information about the whereabouts of the flight data recorders, Mr. Lysenko said. Mr. Borodai denied earlier reports that the rebels had found them, but said if his people did, they would be ready to hand them over to the experts.
At the scene, Alexei Migrin, head of emergency services for the Donetsk region, described his service's task as identifying and collecting bodies. Other people were responsible for the security and investigation, and there isn't any set protocol of coordination among the groups, he said.
"They carry out their duties, the investigation - I don't know what they do - and we carry out ours," he said. He said there was no general manager of the whole site. "We work on our own matters. I don't need a manager. We are doing what we can."
The Dutch Safety Board has dispatched a team of three investigators that will assist the Ukrainian probe and work alongside personnel from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, both of whom have said they would assist the review. The Malaysian investigators in the probe also arrived in Kiev on Saturday, Mr. Liow said.
Intelligence compiled by Ukrainian spies show that three Buk-M1 systems were shipped out of eastern Ukraine on flatbed trucks in two waves in the early morning of July 18, according to Vitaly Nayda, who heads the counterintelligence division of Ukraine's Security Service. A system missing a missile crossed the border in a flatbed truck to Russia at 2 a.m., and two other missile systems with complete set of missiles crossed at 4 a.m., he said.
U.S. officials and other intelligence agencies believe that Flight 17 was shot down by a missile system like the Buk, which was made by the Soviets and is still in use by the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.
Comment: Of course they do. This is the narrative that gives NATO justification for attempting to light the Russian border on fire.
'Fun' fact: The Buk missile is noted for its heavy exhaust trail when launched. Not one witness has mentioned seeing this nor has any alleged video of the event shown a smoke trail going from ground to sky. One of many pesky details of this tragic event.