A woman crosses herself as people lay flowers and light candles in front of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kiev yesterday, to commemorate passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 which crashed in eastern Ukraine. Photo: AFP World leaders called for a rapid investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine and justice for nearly 300 deaths that could mark a pi
votal moment in deteriorating relations between Russia and the West. As Ukraine sought to rally international support against Russia, two US officials said Washington strongly suspected the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 298 aboard was downed by a missile fired by PRO-Moscow Ukrainian rebels. There were no survivors from Thursday's crash, the deadliest such attack on a commercial airliner, which scattered bodies across miles of rebel-held territory near the border with Russia. A Ukrainian official says 181 bodies have been located so far at the crash site of Flight MH17 which was heading for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam. Residents in the Netherlands were in shock yesterday as news spread that 189 of the passengers onboard the doomed flight were Dutch nationals. Around the country, flags were lowered to half-staff as people gathered in squares, and traditional festivals were toned down in honour of the victims. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday vowed "not to rest" in tracking down those responsible for the disaster. Of the rest of the passengers, twenty-nine were Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, nine British, four German, four Belgian, three Filipino, one Canadian, one New Zealand and 4 as yet unidentified. All 15 crew were Malaysian. Two students, a former BBC journalist and two Newcastle United fans are believed to be among the British passengers on board. A number of those on board were travelling to an international AIDS conference in Melbourne, including Joep Lange, an influential Dutch expert. "We lost somebody who wanted to make the world a better place," said his friend Marcel Duyvestijn. Tragic stories have been emerging of people who boarded the flight, including an entire Indonesian family, a nun and three young children flying home with their grandfather. The plane crashed about 40km (25 miles) from the border with Russia near the regional capital of Donetsk, an area that is a stronghold of rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian government forces and have brought down military aircraft. US President Barack Obama demanded Russia stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine after the downing of Malaysian airline. He said a surface-to-air missile fired from rebel territory shot down the jet and it raised the prospect of more sanctions on Moscow. "Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine," Obama said. Calling it "an outrage of unspeakable proportions", Obama stopped short of directly blaming Russia for the incident but warned that he was prepared to tighten economic sanctions. He echoed international calls for a rapid and credible investigation and ruling out US military intervention. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine bears responsibility for the crash and said it underscored the need for a "peaceful settlement" to the Ukraine crisis in talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Leaders of the rebels' self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement and said a Ukrainian air force jet had brought down the intercontinental flight. Russia's defence ministry later pointed the finger at Ukrainian ground forces, saying it had picked up radar activity from a Ukrainian missile system south of Donetsk when the airliner was brought down, Russian media reported. Ukraine's emergency services have found two black boxes at the crash site of a Malaysian airliner, Interfax-Ukraine quoted an adviser to the governor of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. "Two black boxes were found by our emergency services. I have no information on where these boxes are at the moment," Kostyantyn Batovsky was quoted as saying. A spokesman for the emergencies ministry in Kiev declined to comment on the report. However, separatist leader Alexander Borodai denied reports that black box flight recorders of MH17 had been recovered and handed to Moscow. The UN Security Council called for a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the downing of the plane and "appropriate accountability" for those responsible. Staff from the Organisation for the Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) went to the village of Grabovo where the plane came down on Thursday. But, they complained, they did not have the full access they wanted. A unit of heavily armed rebels blocked the 30-strong team from the OSCE, cordoning off a large part of the crash site. The inspectors retreated after an hour-long standoff, having been unable to gain access. They were sent on their way by warning shots fired by the rebel unit commander. According to western-based defence and intelligence specialists, Russian separatist groups in eastern Ukraine are hastily covering up all links to the Buk missile battery suspected to have been used to shoot down the plane. As the US, Ukraine and other governments sought to determine who pressed the button, postings on a rebel social website boasting of having shot down what they claimed was an Antonov Ukrainian military plane have been taken down. Photographs and video purportedly showing a Buk battery being moved in the rebel-held area between Snizhne and Torez close to the crash site in eastern Ukraine on Thursday have been removed from a separatist website. One picture was alleged to show a Buk vehicle with a missile in vertical launch mode beside a supermarket in the district of Torez. Ukrainian intelligence has published a tape claimed to be a recording between rebels and Russian intelligence in which they realised there had been a catastrophic blunder. A Nato intelligence specialist quoted by the military analysts Janes said the recordings "show that the Russian 'helpers' realise that they now have an international incident on their hands -- and they probably also gave the order for separatists to erase all evidence -- including those internet postings." The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said in the leaked audio, which they claimed to have intercepted, Bezler, also referred to as 'Bes', can be heard reporting to commander Vasyl Mykolaiovych Geranin of the Russian Armed Forces at 4.40pm local time on 17 July on a civil airplane that had been recently hit. According to a transcript of the conversation translated by The Guardian, in one of the calls Belzer can be heard saying: “Just now a plane was hit and destroyed by the miners group.” In a second conversation with the SSU said was recorded seven minutes earlier, a militant referred to as 'Major' is reported to have said: “It's the Cernukhinskis. The Cossacks who stay in Chernuknhinks, from their post. The loss of MH17 is the second devastating blow for Malaysia Airlines this year, following the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370 in March, which vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. In Malaysia, there was a sense of disbelief that another airline disaster could strike so soon. "This is a tragic day, in what has already been a tragic year, for Malaysia," Prime Minister Najib Razak said. International air lanes had been open in the area, though only above 32,000 feet. The Malaysia plane was flying 1,000 feet higher, at the instruction of Ukrainian air traffic control, although the airline had asked to fly at 35,000 feet. Relatives gathered at the airport in Kuala Lumpur and the Netherlands declared a day of national mourning, without apportioning blame. [From The Guardian, Independent, Reuters, Telegraph and BBC]
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