Flight MH17: Dutch anger boils over. ‘Bodies are just lying there … in the hot sun’

[SidDithers]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/21/flight_mh17_dutch_anger_boils_over_bodies_are_just_lying_there_in_the_hot_sun.html

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS—The families and friends of Dutch citizens blown out of the sky above Ukraine poured out their grief and anger Monday at a meeting with their monarch and political leaders.

“This terrible disaster has left a deep wound in our society,” a sombre King Willem-Alexander said after meeting the next of kin at a private meeting. “The scar will be visible and tangible for years to come.”

The Dutch have widely condemned the way the bodies of the victims have been treated in Ukraine and the fact they have not yet been returned home, four days after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 killed 298 passengers and crew, including 193 Dutch citizens.

In an unusual move that underscored the severity of the national trauma, the king gave a brief televised address to the country after meeting hundreds of grieving relatives and friends of the dead near the central city of Utrecht.

“Many people said to us, 'We at least want to take dignified leave of our loved ones,'“ he said. “We understand their frustration and their pain. And we share their heartfelt wish for clarity on the cause of this disaster.”

More at link.

Sid

[SunSeeker]

1. The rebels may have hit this plane by mistake, but their mishandling of the bodies is purposeful.

And inhuman.

[RobertEarl]

11. What an awful situation.

Innocents caught between two warmongering bodies of men who don't have the sense to be able to talk it through and stop the wanton slaughter.

This should be a lesson for the world to end wars.

This war business will end up killing many, many more innocent people, unless.....

[sheshe2]

2. Heartbreaking, Sid. eom

[Warren Stupidity]

3. I thought we were angry because they took the bodies away and put them

in refrigerated train cars. Now we are angry because they didn't do that. Well at least I'm angry, that's a good thing...

Dutch forensic expert Peter Van Vliet has examined the corpses commenting: "I think the storage of the bodies is (of) good quality," AFP reports.

Officials are expected to monitor the train later today, amid efforts to try and get it moved to another location.

"The separatists have said that international observers must be present when the train leaves... the Dutch experts are international observers... they can fulfill that role," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-mh17-crash-rebels-blocking-movement-of-refrigerated-body-train-ukraine-says-9618117.html

Peter Van Vliet needs to get with the program. He needs some anger management.

[malaise]

4. The reports I read suggest that proper arrangements have been made

and the forensics folks are now involved.

[geek tragedy]

5. they kept the investigators out for days and only

picked up the remains once they had a chance to loot the corpses.

there should have been immediate access granted to OSCE personnel and a cordoning off of the crime scene.

[tblue37]

16. I have suspected that taking advantage of an opportunity for

looting might be at least one reason for the delays.

[SidDithers]

6. Your mockery of Dutch anger is noted...

Sid

[Warren Stupidity]

9. The target of any mockery was not "the Dutch".

[reorg]

7. Should read: Dutch echo concerns of Alexander Boradai of the DPR

urging the experts to arrive as soon as possible.

".... Alexander Hug (Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine) told us that the OSCE mission has insisted that the place of the accident remained intact until the arrival of all experts. This is important because they need to report to 57 countries, which form this esteemed organization, that we will keep the scene untouched.

We haven't touched it yet, however, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is a humanitarian aspect, and as you know, it's very serious. There are some things that are, you know, just universal. The fact is that the bodies of almost three hundred deceased are scattered around this huge field and some of these bodies actually fell on houses. We are trying not to touch this situation so to maintain its integrity, but as you know, there is 30-degree heat in Donetsk, and, sorry, but these bodies keep decomposing. We believe that the delay is inhumane to the relatives, friends, and families of the victims. We once again express our deepest condolences. They were the innocent victims of this undeclared war.

We know from Alexander Hug that there is a group of 81 experts and specialists, 60 of which are from Malaysia, 6 of which, if I'm not mistaken, are from the UK, and a number of experts from the United States in Kiev. We asked Alexander Hug to urgently rush these groups of experts, and we are ready to provide the maximum degree of safety, to the best of our power. We want them at the scene as soon as possible, however, we were told that this group of 81 people will be consulting in Kiev and will perhaps arrive on the scene tomorrow. We ask the internationaal community, for all politicians to somehow try, to influence these experts, so that they arrive soon."

Here is the video of his press conference two days ago:

#t=980
(subtitled)

[geek tragedy]

10. Pretending that the local thugs are more concerned for

respectful treatment of the bodies (while looting them) and preserving the crime scene (while contamininating it) than the country whose citizens they killed, all I can say is

[reorg]

12. as the video shows, local forces have urged for the speedy arrival

of the 81 experts and that was before some politicians in the Netherlands did.

With regard to the impertinent claims that you have taken from tabloids which I would not even use for toilet paper, see these quotes from The Guardian, which occasionally lets some interesting bits of information slip in:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=852110

[geek tragedy]

13. .

When I first arrived on Saturday, two men in military fatigues at the roadside, armed with Kalashnikovs, were blocking access to the crash site itself. "The experts and investigators of the prosecutor general are now working there," I was told by one.

The international community is unlikely to be impressed by these endeavours, or by an investigation that is being carried out by the "prosecutor general" of the People's Republic of Donetsk – the quasi-statelet that has existed here only since referendums earlier this year.

Indeed, many suspect the rebels of engaging in a cover-up to hide their own involvement in the destruction of the Malaysian Airlines flight.

On Friday, the OSCE team was barred from the site, and on Saturday the international monitoring mission, which arrived again in a convoy of white cars, was initially turned back by Grumpy and his men.

...

However, after brief negotiations and a nervy standoff, the observers were allowed in to see the crash site. Together with journalists, they were permitted to walk along the road but were warned – by dozens of armed people who were tracking them from the nearby fields –not to leave the tarmac.

Several bodies, badly disfigured and still uncovered, lay across their path. According to Aleksey Megrin, the leader of the rescue workers, around 190 bodies had already been picked up by his men. "We are finding bodies and bringing them to the place where rebels tell us to bring them," he said. "We don't know what kind of police are working here: Ukrainian or Russian."

Several times, rebels shot into the air to warn journalists who were getting too near to the bodies lying around them. On Friday the rebels had also fired warning shots at the OSCE team to prevent them from getting too close to the wreckage.

The world really does not care what the fascist thugs there have to say--their words are irrelevant and usually lies. What matters is what they do.

[reorg]

14. Yawn

If you would care about what really was going on, you would listen to the video and learn something. It doesn't surprise me at all that not everything went to the full satisfaction of everybody in the first few days.

Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine

In the Donetsk region, the SMM visited the impact site of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Rassupnoe for the second and third time on 19 and 20 July, respectively. On 19 July, access to the site was limited, but greater than it had been on the SMM’s first visit the previous day. Rescue workers at the scene told the SMM that they had photographed and video filmed bodies before placing them in body bags. The SMM observed 55 body bags. The security perimeter, on the SMM’s arrival, was weak. On 20 July, the SMM observed an indeterminate number of bodies held in cold storage in train carriages at Torez railway station, close to the crash site. This day the SMM was given full access to the main crash site, which was on this occasion properly cordoned off. The recovery of bodies continued.
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/121485

Roland Oliphant, Telegraph journalist:

Dutch team finished their tour of main crash site. Positive about the recovery work done here, diplomatically quiet on "other things"
https://twitter.com/RolandOliphant/status/491216868452352000

Harriet Salem, Freelance journalist in Balkans & Eastern Europe (Financial Time, Foreign Policy etc) ?

At #MH17 crash site Dutch forensic expert "impressed" with recovery operation & workers given the size, weather & circumstances
https://twitter.com/HarrietSalem/status/491201932409974785

Russian Defense Ministry briefing (with English translation)

[geek tragedy]

17. actually the thugs (after refusing for days to turn over black boxes) are busy destroying evidence

Earlier, a team of international observers at the sprawling crash site described strange behavior by workers.

"When we were leaving, we observed workers there hacking into the fuselage with gas-powered equipment," OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told reporters in Donetsk.

He said there was no security perimeter Monday at one of the bigger debris fields, and monitors saw that one of the largest pieces of the plane "had somewhat been split or moved apart."

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140722/eu--ukraine-plane-bdb1bf17bf.html

Then again, what would you expect from a group of terrorists who murder 300 people and show zero remorse?

At least they do not pretend to have sympathy for the victims' families, being the sociopathic thugs they are. They are honest in one way.

[William769]

8. Kicking to keep the atrocity front & center.

[smirkymonkey]

15. K&R!

This is horrible - those poor families!