Tag: Dutch victims

Dutch families of MH17 victims demand international inquiry

The families of the victims of Flight MH17, frustrated with what they see as the failure of Dutch authorities to investigate the disaster, are demanding that the UN take over the investigation and launch an international inquiry into the tragedy.

The relatives of those died in the July, 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine are frustrated with what they see as a Dutch mishandling of the investigation into the tragedy.

They are now demanding that the UN take over and launch an international inquiry into the disaster.

Reuters obtained a copy of a letter written by Van der Goen Attorneys on behalf of 20 relatives from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the US, which was sent Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, accusing Dutch officials of having failed to build a case.

The letter demanded that inquiries by the Safety Board and prosecution service be handed over to the UN, and that Rutte ask the UN to appoint a special envoy to take over.

It said the Netherlands “has completely botched” the fact-finding investigation and the legal framework of the case.

Dutch prosecutors have been unable to access the crash site, which is located on the front lines of a war zone in eastern Ukraine which is disputed by Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels, and haven’t met international requirements to secure evidence, the letter said.

“Nobody knows who is doing what,” Reuters quotes said Bob van der Goen, a spokesman for the law firm, as saying. “There is no coordination, there is no leadership whatsoever [by] Holland.”

According to the letter, an international inquiry is the only way to identify who shot down the plane and ensure that those responsible are brought to court.

Rutte said on Friday that the Dutch teams were returning to the Netherlands.

“We have done everything we could. In view of the safety situation and the weather, we cannot do anything more right now,” Reuters quotes him as saying.

Eight families from Australia, whose relatives died in the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 crash in eastern Ukraine are also preparing to sue Ukraine, Malaysia, Russia, and the airline, The Daily Mail reported Thursday.

Dutch foreign minister says MH17 victim wore oxygen mask

A passenger of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was found with an oxygen mask over the mouth when the body was recovered from the crash site, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said on Wednesday.

Timmermans’ statement came in response to a comment from TV host Jeroen Pauw that the final moments aboard Flight MH17 were not as suggested by Timmermans in his speech at the U.N. Security Council in the week after the tragedy.

Timmermans had reportedly said during his U.N. speech on July 21 that the passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines plane remained conscious after the aircraft was struck by a suspected missile.

“I’ve been thinking how horrible the final moments of their lives must have been, when they knew the plane was going down,” Timmermans reportedly said at the time. “Did they lock hands with their loved ones, did they hold their children close to their hearts, did they look each other in the eyes, one final time, in a wordless goodbye? We will never know.”

A preliminary report of the investigation by the Dutch Safety Board into the crash stated that the jetliner broke apart in mid-air after being hit by “a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.”

Timmermans’ announcement indicates that some passengers on board Flight MH17 may have remained conscious after the aircraft was reportedly hit by a surface-to-air missile. It contradicts findings that claimed that the people aboard the jetliner, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, had been killed instantly after the strike of a BUK missile.

Jeroen Pauw  accused Timmermans of making an emotional speech about the last moments of those on board the plane to the United Nations shortly afterwards.

The first report on the crash shows there is no single moment when the passengers could have realised that a rocket was approaching the plane, Pauw said.

In his rebuttal, Timmermans said one of the passengers was found with an oxygen mask on. ‘So there was time to do that,’ the minister said.

The plane had 298 people on board, of whom 196 were Dutch. So far 262 of the victims have been identified. The Netherlands is in charge of the investigation.

Timmermans was invited to a Dutch late-night talk show “Pauw,” Dutch News reported.

Experts said earlier that the passenger may not have noticed the attack. “The passengers probably lost consciousness immediately,” said researcher James Vosswinkel to Bloomberg. Joris Melkert, lecturer in aeronautical engineering at Delft University concluded that the device disintegrated in the air.

Relatives of the victims this morning received yet another email confirming that an oxygen mask was found on an Australian victim.

About 228 coffins have been reportedly flown back to the Netherlands for identification of the victims. However, forensic experts have not been able to recover all the bodies from the crash site due to the ongoing conflict in the area.

 

Russia to request UN report on MH17 air disaster

Russia is planning to request an official report on the progress of the investigation into the crash of a Malaysian passenger plane in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said Monday.

“We will ask for a briefing by the UN Secretariat on the progress of the implementation of Resolution 2166,” Churkin told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Churkin said it had been a month since the start of the probe and paragraph 13 of the resolution envisions periodical reports by the UN secretary general on the progress of the investigation.

On August 14, the Dutch Safety Board, which is in charge of victim identification and probing the cause of the disaster, said it had finished its work in Ukraine, and that an initial report on the flight MH17 crash will be released during the first week of September.

A total of 298 people, including 193 Dutch citizens and 27 Australians, died on July 17 as a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Donetsk Region of Ukraine.

The investigation into the circumstances of the crash is seriously obstructed by continuing clashes between independence supporters and Kiev forces in eastern regions of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities claim the plane was shot down by independence supporters, whereas the latter say they do not have necessary equipment to hit a target flying this high.

Source: RIA Novosti