Rebels Call For Truce To Allow MH17 Probe Pro-Russian separatists have said they will grant monitors safe access to the Malaysia Airlines crash site if Kiev agrees a truce. Andrei Purgin, deputy PM of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic said his troops would guarantee the safety of international experts on the scene as soon as a deal with Ukraine was struck on a ceasefire. If the offer was rejected by Kiev, he warned it would suggest the government was made up of dangerous lunatics, bloodthirsty maniacs (who are) dangerous not only for the residents of Donbass but also for the world community. The move came as world leaders piled pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the armed Moscow-backed rebels from preventing investigators from fully accessing the MH17 crash site. British Prime Minister David said Europe and the West must fundamentally change our approach unless Mr Putin alters his stance. Writing in the Sunday Times Mr Cameron said: The growing weight of evidence points to a clear conclusion: that MH17 was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile fired from a rebel-held area. If it is the case, then we must be clear what it means: this is a direct result of Russia destabilising a sovereign state, violating its territorial integrity, backing thuggish militias, and training and arming them. The prospect of further sanctions against Russia was raised as public anger and concerns grow over claims of looting and evidence being compromised. The US has condemned the lack of security at the scene, while Malaysia has attacked the failure to preserve evidence as a betrayal of the lives lost. US Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reports that the remains of some victims and debris from the site are being tampered with or inappropriately removed from the site amounted to an an affront to all those who lost loved ones and to the dignity the victims deserve. Critically, investigators have been unable to speak to anyone about the whereabouts of the jets two black box voice and data recorders. Ukraine has said they have not been handed over to Kiev and it has no information about them, while the rebels have denied shooting down the plane, finding the black boxes, and rubbished claims they have removed bodies from the crash site. All 298 passengers including 10 Britons and 80 children were killed when flight MH17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was brought down near Grabovo, Donetsk, where Ukrainian forces have been battling separatists. Kiev and Moscow have blamed each other for the disaster.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 08:00:00 +0000
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