198 bodies recovered from MH17 crash site loaded on train to Donetsk
Pro-Moscow insurgents on Sunday loaded 198 bodies recovered so far from the debris of the downed Malaysian jet into a refrigerated train, even as international pressure mounted for unfettered access to the crash site in Ukraine’s rebel-held region.
The packed bodies were loaded into wagons at a station in the town of Torez, some 15 km from the crash site, and the train left for the rebel-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Ria Novosti news agency reported.
Earlier there were reports of the bodies having been looted, left exposed to the elements and even dragged around, before they were unceremoniously removed from the site
on Sunday.
International anger is rising at the lack of dignity with which the bodies have been treated, while families of the victims continue to call for the bodies to be returned home.
The smell at the station was unbearable and separatists guarding the grisly cargo had pledged not to move the bodies until “international experts” arrive, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said.
“Some of the body bags are open and the damage to the corpses is very, very bad —it is very difficult to look at,” he said.
The train, however, left the station and its first destination is the town of Illovaisk, in the Donetsk region, from whence it will go to the region’s capital Donetsk. There are a total of 198 bodies on the train, according to OSCE monitors who inspected the train ahead of the departure. Armed rebels were guarding the train.
OSCE monitors escorted by armed rebels appeared to have been granted greater freedom to examine the crash site. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 carrying 298 people was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala lumpur as it was downed on Thursday between Krasni luch in luhansk region and Shakhtarsk in the neighbouring region of Donetsk.
It is believed that flight MH17 crashed after being hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from the rebel-held area.All 298 people on board were killed.The Ukrainian Gover-nment and pro-Moscow rebels have been trading blame for the downing of the airliner.
Interestingly, The Sunday Times reported that in a catastrophic error, pro-Russian rebels shot down the Malaysian jet, mistaking it for a Ukrainian military transport aircraft.
A surface-to-air missile launcher secretly crossed over from the Russian border and into war-torn eastern Ukraine early morning, the newspaper reported. The radar-controlled missile system — known by the Russians as the Buk-M1 and by NATO forces as the SA-11 Gadfly — is bristled with four missiles capable of shooting down enemy aircraft flying at up to 72,000 ft.
However, 15 hours after slipping across the Russian border, the weapon is believed instead to have destroyed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 as it flew at about 33,000 ft above the war zone, the report said. Using intercepted mobile phone calls and satellite imagery, senior Ukrainian officials say they can accurately reconstruct the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.
Their claims, disclosed to the British daily, are vigorously denied by the Russia and pro-Moscow rebels. According to the Ukrainian account, the launcher crossed the porous border with Russia near the village of Sukhodolsk.
The launcher, carried on the back of a low-loading lorry, reached the city of Donetsk, the rebels’ stronghold and command centre. Telephone conversations posted on the internet by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), purport to reveal militants discussing the delivery of the weapon.
The recordings follow photographs and video that emerged on Friday that appear to show a launcher with a missile in vertical launch mode beside a supermarket in the Torez district, east of Donetsk.
At about 4 pm the Buk, commanded by a junior rebel officer known by the nom de guerre “Miner”, stopped in the nearby village of Pervomayski. At 4:10 pm a Russian operator reported the aircraft to “Miner” who, mistaking the Boeing 777 for a Ukrainian AN-26 transporter, allegedly gave the fateful order to fire.
The rebels were initially jubilant, thinking they had successfully downed yet another Ukrainian aircraft. Four days earlier they had used a surface-to-air missile to bring down an AN-26, killing two military personnel.
Shortly after the airliner was destroyed, Igor Girkin, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Army, posted on his Russian social media page a message claiming his men had shot down a Ukrainian cargo plane. The chilling message was quickly removed after news broke of MH17’s downing.
Western countries have criticised the pro-Russian rebels in the area for restricting access to the crash site as indiscipline and chaos ruled the crash site during the last two days.
The US State Department said there had been multiple reports of bodies and aircraft parts being removed, and potential evidence tampered with.
Meanwhile, France warned Russia of “consequences” at the EU if Moscow did not “immediately take the necessary measures”, after the leaders of France, Germany and Britain held a conference call.
World leaders have demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin use his influence to persuade the rebels to hand over the bodies and allow international investigators unfettered access to the crash site.
Raising the prospect of fresh EU sanctions against Russia over the downing of the Malaysian jet, British Prime Minister David Cameron, in an article in The Sunday Times, said the West must “fundamentally change our approach” unless Moscow alters course in Ukraine.
“Russia can use this moment to find a path out of this festering, dangerous crisis. I hope it will do so. But if that does not happen then we must respond robustly,” Cameron wrote.
Earlier, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service (SES) said 380 staff were taking part in the search that stretches across 34 km of eastern Ukraine. latest figures released by Malaysia Airlines show the plane was carrying 192 Dutch nationals, 44 Malaysians (including 15 crew), 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three from the Philippines, and one each from Canada and New Zealand.
Ukraine on Saturday claimed it has “compelling evidence” that Russian crew operated the missile system that downed the Malaysian jet and accused Moscow of helping the rebels in trying to destroy evidence.
As calls for an independent investigation into the downing of the jet grew louder, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Putin on Saturday agreed for an international probe.
The two leaders, who spoke on the telephone “agreed that an international,independent commission under the direction of UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) should quickly have access to the site of the accident... To shed light on the circumstances of the crash and move the victims,” a German Government statement said.
Kiev also accused Russia of helping pro-Moscow rebels of trying to destroy evidence in the downing of the aircraft. It complained that “the terrorists” had taken 38 bodies to a morgue in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. It said the rebels were also trying to transport the plane’s wreckage to Russia.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crash site was “absolutely chaotic” as he feared interference with the evidence.