Posted on 07/19/2014 12:31:29 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte says Russia's president has "one last chance" to show he is serious about helping rescuers recover the bodies of the victims of crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
The attack on the plane has claimed the lives of 28 Australians and eight permanent Australian residents, who were among the 298 passengers and crew on board.
Mr Rutte's comments come amid reports pro-Russian rebels have taken 38 bodies from the site.
Minutes after what he described as a "very intense" conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Mr Rutte said: "He has one last chance to show he means to help."
Mr Rutte said the leaders of Germany, Britain and Australia also shared his view.
"I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot," he said, referring to allegations that bodies of the passengers, including 193 of his countrymen, were being allowed to rot at the scene.
He has one last chance to show he means to help Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans said people in the Netherlands are "angry and furious" by news that bodies are being dragged around the site.
After meeting with the Ukrainian president, Mr Timmermans said he wants to know who is responsible for shooting down the airliner.
"We're already in shock, but what the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, the site being treated improperly, has really created a shock in the Netherlands," he said.
"People are angry, are furious at what they hear. So my plea to you also, Mr President, is please help us bring our people back so that they can be buried in a decent way."
Dutch forensic experts left for the crash site on Saturday but continue to encounter difficulties in identifying and repatriating the bodies of the 193 Dutch citizens on the flight, he said.
International monitors have now been allowed to visit more of the crash site, 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 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said access had improved since they arrived on Friday.
"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.
On Friday, a group of monitors were hampered in their work by "armed personnel who acted in a very impolite and unprofessional manner".
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.
Meanwhile Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state John Kerry agreed both countries will use their influence on the two sides of the Ukraine conflict to end hostilities, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Both agreed that all evidence from the downed Malaysian airplane, including flight recorders, should be made available for international investigation and that experts should be given access to work on the site.
"[They] agreed on the main - it is necessary to ensure an absolutely unbiased, independent and open international investigation of the Malaysian airliner crash in eastern Ukraine on July 17," the ministry said of the telephone call between Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) should play a leading role in the investigation, it said.
The two leaders said that all sides should continue to work towards the goals outlined on April 17 in Geneva aimed at ending hostilities and launching a transparent settlement process involving all Ukrainian regions.
"Lavrov and Kerry have agreed to use the influence of Russia and the United States on the opposing Ukrainian sides in order to encourage them to move in that direction," the ministry said.
"It was stressed that the conflict in Ukraine has no military solution and can only be resolved peacefully through the elaboration of a national consensus."
Pretty disgusting story. A bunch of barbarians - letting bodies rot on the ground. Glad I was never one of those folks who thought Putin was kind of a good guy.
Putin, regardless if the truth comes out about the overt, or covert support of the separatists (Russian Proxy fighters) in this incident...
He and anyone else involved has absolutely nothing to fear from anyone, much less our country, now that no American citizens were murdered in this tragedy...
I do understand the count now is one passenger with duel citizenry, but that will be downplayed by the narrative machine that passes for news services around the world...Especially here...
So I guess we can all go back to sleep...Nothing to see here anymore...
Obama is reported to be standing firm on this matter...
Standing firm on the 9th hole today...Somewhere...
This is the last chance for those fooled into admiring the genocidal mass murderer Putin to repent and admit they were wrong.
The indifference and ignorance of our pathetic coward RAT “president” is truly a disgrace.
He couldn’t care less about this atrocity. He is more concerned with watching ESPN and hitting the golf course.
That’s hard to ask. Awfully hard for people to apologize about being so wrong. I know when I’ve been wrong it’s been tough.
Just saw on Drudge a tiny pair of Dutch clogs with what looks like Delft tile motifs. I’ll bet some trophy-taker will steal that. Maybe even Putin himself.
Personally Vlady is not going listen to Dutch
They’ll never admit it.
There are, sadly, some folks out there who simply crave the sting of the lash, who find comfort in cringing like dogs at the feet of their master; toadies and lickspittles who yearn for a ruthless authoritarian leader who will dominate them and allow them to feel the thrill of submission to their God-King.
That’s the Putin fanboys (and girls) in a nutshell. They deeply desire to be dominated by a cruel and merciless leader. It gives them the vapors.
Or what?
100% agree. What do they think they are going to gain from this behavior? If it was a mistake they better make a groveling apology, but not letting people deal with the remains of the dead if very low.
I thought Putin puts himself out as a big Christian. Maybe one of the Russian clergy could set these people straight.
The LePunk in the Hood on Penn Ave is not going to do anything that interferes with his golf game or his shooting hoops with LeBron. He has turned our nation into a slum and he is the slum-lord. He has wasted our history. He has wasted the hundreds of thousands of lives of Americans over the past 200-plus years in winning and defending this Republic. He has wasted it all. He has turned God’s gift into this mess. PLUS, Americans have 100% assisted in the adventure. Americans have turned their backs on the LORD God of Israel who gave this all too us. God gave us what we wanted. America wanted a free-loader as leader and God said, “fine, here ya go. Have this bum.” LePunk and his pal LeBron and the rest of the Hood have turned America into Detroit nationwide. Congratulations America. LePunk rules by the pen and the idiot republicans do nothing. Absolutely NOTHING to stop him.
bump!
I guess Putin tries to appear as all things to all people. I always saw a typical Russian thug in a bad suit with a bad haircut behaving badly. But then I’ve had to put up with Russian invaders in NYC for over 30 years now and they do not impress me with their honesty or integrity.
KGB Putin is still sore at the Dutch for sending troops to Iraq to help the USA kill his moslem comrade Saddam Hussein.
OHHH that probably reason that KGB agent memory is long Oh okayyy LOL!
Has Putin lost control over his military?
Is he nothing but a paper tiger, full of boasts and first to roar, but impotent in matters of state?
Putin must come realize how this is such a wrong message to the Islamo-fascists of the world. Where are the morals he holds so high of himself?
Either he has the power to call to heel the loyalists who have taken it upon themselves to restrict the area, who have assumed the belongings of the dead belong to them, who are allowing remains to lay untended, or he doesn’t.
Decent people wait for the answer as the clock ticks.
I'm with you. I always thought of Putin as a little Hitler. Never liked the egomaniac. He was discussing at the Olympics with his glorifying his homeland when Russia never were saints.
RetiredArmy, you hit the nail on the head. I’m with you 100% and your “LePunk in the Hood” is perfect.
So, Russia is supposed to send people to make sure the bodies are recovered?
The nation where the plane goes down is responsible for recovery. If the nation responsible needs help they have to officially request such help and officially allow the personnel and equipment of the nation they're seeking help from to be on their territory.
Well then, the Dutch, German, Brits, and Aussies all know International Law so they're all saying that region is really a part of Russia, not Ukraine since they're not demanding that Kiev ask Russia to help but stating that Russia is responsible.
Interesting.
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