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| Europe |
| Shelling around MH17 site blocks international police |
| 2014-07-28 |
| [ARABNEWS] Ukraine: Heavy shelling around the crash site of downed Malaysian flight MH17 forced Dutch and Australian police to scrap a planned trip on Sunday, as 13 people including two children were killed during festivities in Death Eater-held east Ukraine. The unarmed contingent of law enforcement officers were due to head to the location 10 days after the disaster following a deal with rebels aimed at allowing a long-delayed probe to go ahead. But international observers overseeing the trip had to abruptly ditch their plans after festivities shattered a supposed truce between government forces and murderous Moslems in the area around the site, where some remains of the 298 victims still lie decomposing under the summer sun. "There is fighting going on. We can't take the risk," said Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the European security body OSCE's special mission in Ukraine. "The security situation on the way to the site and on the site itself is unacceptable for our unarmed observer mission," he told news hounds in the Death Eater stronghold Donetsk, the biggest city in the region. An AFP photographer heard artillery bombardments just a kilometer from the rebel-held town of Grabove next to the crash site and saw black smoke billowing into the sky. Terrified local residents were fleeing and checkpoints controlled by separatist fighters were abandoned. The Dutch Justice Ministry confirmed that security advisers had also halted a trip by a team of forensic experts. "Because of fighting in the area, the situation is still too unstable to work at the crash site," the ministry said in a statement. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Wise move. The time to have jumped in and secured the area is long past. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-07-28 04:34 |