Dutch Fury As MH17 Bodies ‘Dragged Around’
The Netherlands expresses anger as the country grieves for its 192 nationals killed by “murderers” when the plane was shot down.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko that his country was “angry” and “furious” by reports of bodies being dragged around the site in Grabovo, Donetsk.
“We are already shocked by the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly,” he said.
The front page of one of the Dutch newspapers in the wake of the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet shows a picture of pro-Russian fighters with the headline: “Murderers!”
Mr Timmermans said the Netherlands would not stop until those responsible for the deaths of so many citizens were brought to justice.
“Once we have the proof, we will not stop before the people are brought to justice,” he said.
“Not just the people who pulled the trigger but also those who made it possible. I think the international community needs to step up its efforts in this respect.”
http://news.sky.com/story/1303973/dutch-fury-as-mh17-bodies-dragged-around
Ukrainian rebels boasted on social media on June 29 that they gained control of a Buk-M1 system when they overran a Ukrainian armed forces base in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. Mr. Nayda said that Ukrainian armed forces made that system nonoperational back in March, around the time when the fighting in the area kicked off. The core of the missile system remains on the base, but there are no warheads to arm it, he said.
“It’s about 90% certain that the separatists shot down the aircraft down by accident,” said Steven Pifer, director of arms control and nonproliferation at Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution. Although Ukraine and Russia have Buk antiaircraft systems, “I would think it improbable the system would not have been provided by the Russians,” he said.
The U.S. suspects Russia has done more than deliver the equipment. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Friday that the SA-11 is “a sophisticated system” and that “it strains credulity to think that it could be used by separatists without at least some measure of Russian support and technical assistance.”
Russian officials have denied supplying the pro-Moscow separatists with surface-to-air missiles. In the months of conflict in the region, Russia has issued blanket denials it is training or coordinating rebels in their offensive against Ukraine.
Mr. Nayda said that Ukrainian intelligence showed that a three-man Russian military team entered Ukraine along with one of the Buk missile systems. He didn’t say when the equipment crossed the border into Ukraine.
Intelligence, including photographs and electronic intercepts, 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, said Mr. Nayda. A system missing a missile crossed the border in a flatbed truck to Russia at 2 a.m., and two other missile systems with a complete set of missiles crossed at 4 a.m., he said.