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| Australia Offers 50 Police Officers to Secure Flight 17 Crash Site | Australia Offers 50 Police Officers to Secure Flight 17 Crash Site |
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| SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Thursday that Australia, dozens of whose citizens were aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 when it was brought down last week, has sent 50 police officers to Europe in hopes that they will be allowed to help secure the crash site in eastern Ukraine. | SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Thursday that Australia, dozens of whose citizens were aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 when it was brought down last week, has sent 50 police officers to Europe in hopes that they will be allowed to help secure the crash site in eastern Ukraine. |
| “It is vital that the search and the investigation not be contaminated by people who have a vested interest in the outcome,” Mr. Abbott said at a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital. | “It is vital that the search and the investigation not be contaminated by people who have a vested interest in the outcome,” Mr. Abbott said at a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital. |
| Australia says 28 of its citizens and nine permanent residents were aboard the plane when it crashed in territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard. For days, bodies lay strewn across the site, and there have been accusations that evidence at the site was tampered with. Western officials have said that a Russian-made antiaircraft missile supplied to the rebels shot down the jetliner. The rebels have strongly denied involvement, as has Russia. | Australia says 28 of its citizens and nine permanent residents were aboard the plane when it crashed in territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard. For days, bodies lay strewn across the site, and there have been accusations that evidence at the site was tampered with. Western officials have said that a Russian-made antiaircraft missile supplied to the rebels shot down the jetliner. The rebels have strongly denied involvement, as has Russia. |
| Under a deal reached this week between the Malaysian government and the rebels, the bodies of many of the crash victims have been transported from Ukraine to the Netherlands, and the rebels have handed over the plane’s so-called black boxes. But Mr. Abbott noted Thursday that the site, while more accessible than it had been, was still under rebel control. | Under a deal reached this week between the Malaysian government and the rebels, the bodies of many of the crash victims have been transported from Ukraine to the Netherlands, and the rebels have handed over the plane’s so-called black boxes. But Mr. Abbott noted Thursday that the site, while more accessible than it had been, was still under rebel control. |
| “Nothing is happening without the approval of the armed rebels who most likely brought the plane down in the first place,” he said. “There has still not been anything like a thorough professional search of the area where the plane came down. And there can’t be while the site is controlled by armed men with a vested interest in the outcome of any investigation.” | “Nothing is happening without the approval of the armed rebels who most likely brought the plane down in the first place,” he said. “There has still not been anything like a thorough professional search of the area where the plane came down. And there can’t be while the site is controlled by armed men with a vested interest in the outcome of any investigation.” |
| Mr. Abbott said the Australian police officers had been sent to London, although it was not clear from his statement whether they had yet arrived. He said he hoped they would be sent on to Ukraine to join an international force, under United Nations authority, to secure the site. | Mr. Abbott said the Australian police officers had been sent to London, although it was not clear from his statement whether they had yet arrived. He said he hoped they would be sent on to Ukraine to join an international force, under United Nations authority, to secure the site. |
| He said Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, would go to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, later Thursday, along with her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, to seek a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine authorizing an international force to secure the crash site. Most of the people aboard Flight 17, which was headed to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, from Amsterdam, were Dutch. | He said Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, would go to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, later Thursday, along with her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans, to seek a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine authorizing an international force to secure the crash site. Most of the people aboard Flight 17, which was headed to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, from Amsterdam, were Dutch. |
| Mr. Abbott said he had spoken with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro O. Poroshenko, before sending the police officers. He would not discuss the details of his conversation with Mr. Putin, nor whether the Australian or international police contingent would be armed. | Mr. Abbott said he had spoken with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro O. Poroshenko, before sending the police officers. He would not discuss the details of his conversation with Mr. Putin, nor whether the Australian or international police contingent would be armed. |
| Mr. Abbott ruled out negotiating with the rebels as Malaysia has, saying that “we recognize the authority of the Ukraine government over the Ukrainian territory,” as well as the authority of the United Nations. | Mr. Abbott ruled out negotiating with the rebels as Malaysia has, saying that “we recognize the authority of the Ukraine government over the Ukrainian territory,” as well as the authority of the United Nations. |
| In a statement Wednesday, the Dutch Safety Board said that while its investigators were still working to obtain safe access to the wreckage site, its experts in Kiev and in the Netherlands were already at work analyzing evidence, including photos and video, that had been obtained from on-site observers. | |
| Investigators said the analysis of the black boxes would likely take “several weeks” to complete. In addition to retrieving the data the recorders contain, analysts will seek to determine whether any of that data has been manipulated in the days since the plane crashed on July 17. | |
| Despite the risk that some evidence may have been damaged or lost, the Dutch board said it was confident that both the black boxes and the debris on the ground would yield “sufficient relevant information” to determine the circumstances of the crash. But as is common with technical inquiries, investigators said their aim would not be to apportion blame. | |
| “The investigation will focus on ascertaining facts,” the safety board said. | |
| The Dutch board said it would conduct a separate investigation into the decision-making process that led aviation authorities to determine the area in eastern Ukraine where Flight 17 crashed to be safe for civilian aircraft. |