The State Emergency Service said the search in a
remote area of eastern Ukraine roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the
Russian border, was being "complicated by armed separatists at the site
who hinder the work of SES units."
It said that 380 official staff are taking part in
the search for the remains of the 298 people who were on board MH17, covering
an area stretching across 34 square kilometers (13 square miles).
They were being helped by busloads of volunteers
from local coal mines who fanned out across the wheat fields where the bodies
and debris from the plane fell to earth on Thursday.
The situation at the crash site showed some small
signs of improvement, with more control and more activity. But it still
remained disorganized in many respects, and the area was still under the
control of pro-Russian rebels.
Many of the bodies that had littered the fields
previously were gone by late morning Sunday as CNN teams drove through the
crash site, but it was not immediately clear where they had been taken.
Government emergency workers prevented vehicles from
driving up the road to the main crash site. But people could still roam around
the fields on foot. The whereabouts of the plane's flight recorders is still
unknown.
Large numbers of bodies have been collected on
refrigerated train cars at a station near the crash site, international
observers told CNN.
The observers from the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe said they have been told the bodies are from the crashed
plane but that they can't independently confirm that.
The 14-member OSCE team said the train will remain
in place until international specialists arrive. It was not clear when that
would be or where the train might take bodies.
Rebels control area
Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for observers from
the OSCE, said Saturday that the group had seen men moving an unknown number of
body bags on Saturday, but that it wasn't clear who the men were.
It's hard to get reliable information because
several groups of pro-Russian rebels, some of them masked, control the
checkpoints leading to the crash site.
"There doesn't seem to be one commander in
charge," Bociurkiw told CNN.
Rebels are suspected of shooting down the plane with
a Russian-made surface-to-air missile on Thursday.
Three air crash investigators from Ukraine
accompanied the OSCE observers but didn't have much time to do their work,
Bociurkiw said. "They need a lot more time and a lot more freedom of
access," Bociurkiw said.
Pressure on Putin
Governments from around the world have expressed
outrage at the disorderly situation at the crash site and called on Russian
President Vladimir Putin to use his influence on the pro-Russian rebels.
"There are multiple reports of bodies being
removed, parts of the plane and other debris being hauled away, and potential
evidence tampered with," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
"This is unacceptable and an affront to all those who lost loved ones and
to the dignity the victims deserve."
British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote a Sunday
Times opinion article urging Putin to find a way to make the crash site more
accessible and calm the strife between Ukraine and the rebels.
"If President Putin does not change his
approach to Ukraine, then Europe and the West must fundamentally change our
approach to Russia," Cameron wrote. Ten of the passengers on MH17, which
was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, were British.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country
had 27 citizens on the plane, added to the pressure on Putin.
Describing the downing of the passenger jet as
"a horrific crime," Abbott said he had summoned Russian Trade
Minister Denis Manturov, who is visiting Australia, and "made crystal
clear my concerns and dissatisfaction with the way this has been handled."
"Russian controlled territory, Russian-backed
rebels, quite likely a Russian supplied weapon," Abbott said in a
television interview Sunday. "Russia can't wash its hands of this."
'Intensive' conversation
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte have spoken out, as well.
"I want to see results in the form of
unhindered access and a speedy recovery of the victims' remains," Rutte said Saturday. Nearly two-thirds of the people on the
jetliner were Dutch.
Rutte told reporters he had "an extremely
intensive telephone conversation" with Putin on Saturday in which he told
the Russian leader that "the window of opportunity to show the world that
he intends to help is closing rapidly."
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke
with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to urge Moscow to
get the rebels to stop fighting and talk peace, and also provide full access to
the crash site.
The United States has said evidence suggests a
Russian-made surface-to-air missile fired from the rebel territory took down
the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with citizens from more than 10 nations
aboard.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that Russia
likely bears some of the responsibility, noting rebel fighters couldn't have
operated the missile "without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated
training, and that is coming from Russia."
U.S. officials believe the missile systems may have
been moved back across the border into Russia, CNN foreign affairs reporter
Elise Labott said Saturday.
Russia has denied any involvement, and Putin said
Ukraine's military campaign against the rebels was to blame. He also has called
for a "thorough and objective investigation" of the crash.
Finger-pointing
Since the crash, the Ukrainian government and
pro-Russian rebels have traded bitter accusations over who was responsible and
what has been done since.
Ukrainian officials have said that a Russian-made
Buk M1 missile system, brought into eastern Ukraine from Russia, had shot down
the Malaysian airline.
The Ukrainian government has accused the rebels of
removing debris and 38 bodies from the scene as part of an attempt to cover up
what happened.
The local head of the rebels, Alexander Borodai, has
rejected accusations that his forces shot down the plane, telling reporters
that the rebels lacked the firepower to hit an aircraft so high up.
Borodai, who calls himself the prime minister of the
self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, also denied that his forces removed any
bodies.
Where are the black boxes?
One key issue for investigators is the location of
the plane's flight data recorders, which may hold crucial data.
The Ukrainian government said Friday that the
so-called black boxes are still in Ukrainian territory but didn't clarify
whether they were in Ukraine's possession.
Bociurkiw of the OSCE said no one at the crash site
was able to tell his people where the recorders might be.
Malaysian investigators touched down in Kiev on
Saturday to try to get the bottom of what happened to the jetliner.
But Malaysia's official news agency Bernama said
they were still negotiating with pro-Russian rebels over access for their
131-member team.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said
Saturday in Kuala Lumpur that Malaysia was "deeply concerned that the
crash site has not yet been properly secured."
"There are indications that vital evidence has
not been preserved in place," he said.
Law enforcement officials from the Netherlands, the
United States and Australia have arrived or are being sent to Ukraine to work
with the investigation, which is being led by the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
Malaysia Airlines said Sunday that it will retire
the flight number MH17 for the route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, replacing
it with the code MH19.
The change, which will take effect Friday, is being
made "out of respect for the crew and passengers," the airline said.
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