International monitors said on Sunday they had been allowed to see more of the site where a MH17 crashed in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, 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 Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said access had improved since they arrived on Friday. 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 on Thursday, but some officials suggest the scene has already been compromised. 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. We also had the possibility to speak to those who are in charge here, and ... to speak to inhabitants of a local village. He told reporters: As in any job, the cooperation improves over time ... we had better access today. On Friday, a group of monitors were hampered in their work by armed personnel who acted in a very impolite and unprofessional manner. Some of them even looked slightly intoxicated, an OSCE spokesman said. On Saturday, gunmen formed a line along the edge of the fields where the plane crashed, killing all 298 people on board, ostensibly to show they were securing the site. The pro-Russian rebels, who want independence for Ukraines eastern Donbass region where most people speak Russia, say they have not touched the site, but at least some of their number at the scene said some bodies had been taken away in trucks. World leaders have called for a rapid investigation into Thursdays airliner disaster, which could mark a pivotal moment in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. The United States and other powers said a surface-to-air missile appeared to have been fired from rebel-held territory. But some officials fear time may be running out to ensure a thorough and forensic investigation. I dont think its too late. But with each passing day you lose a chance to protect and secure the scene and the bodies, said Michael Bociurkiw, an OSCE spokesman, adding he thought the security presence at the site had been laid on for their visit. Its a huge area. You need a lot of people to protect the bodies and give them the dignity they deserve. He told a later news conference that the monitors had, for the first time, seen rescue workers removing bodies from the site and putting them in bags. Typically these bags were placed on both sides of the closed roadway. Some of the bags were open and exposed to the elements. We dont quite know why. We counted today 55 body bags and 50 marked locations of bodies, he said.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 08:22:23 +0000
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