UN Council calls for a full investigation into downed Malaysian airliner

The Malaysian government deployed a team of experts to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Friday, a day after a Kuala Lumpur-bound Malaysia Airlines crashed in eastern Ukraine.
 
Forensic experts, officers of the Disaster Victim Identification department, a disaster assist and rescue team and personnel from the armed forces all gathered at the airport in Sepang before flying out.
 
They will make preparations for the initial stages of the recovery and assist Ukrainian officials with recovering and identifying the 298 victims who had been on board the Boing 777 airliner.

"Our main assignment there is to make initial preparations for the teams that will join us later and to help with the identification process through our forensic team. Three of them are experts and two are assistants," medical director of Malaysian armed force Yaakob Koming said as he sent off the team in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

"They will prepare medicines for the Malaysian team that will go there (Kiev), whether they are from the police, armed forces, non-government organizations or reporters," he added.

                  
UN Security Council:

Malaysia's Prime Minister said he had made a special three-point demand to the United Nations to ensure the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines MH17 would run smoothly.
 
Prime Minister Najib Razak, who appeared on a special bulletin aired on Malaysia's state media RTM, said he had requested from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that all countries involved work together to ensure the safety of the investigation and forensic team.
 
He also asked for cooperation from Russia.
 
Earlier, the U.N. Security Council called for a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the downing of a Malaysian airliner with 298 people on board over Ukraine, urging all parties to grant investigators access to the site.
 
In a statement agreed by consensus, the council also called for "appropriate accountability."
 
Britain drafted the short text and hoped the 15-member council could issue it on Thursday, but Russia requested more time to review it before it was agreed.
 
Meanwhile, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council that the US could not rule out Russian help to separatists in Ukraine in firing an SA-11 surface-to-air missile that likely downed the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine.
 
"Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11 it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel, thus we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the system."

OSCE monitors:
 
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were not able to secure an access corridor on Friday to the site where the Malaysian airliner crashed, the OSCE's chairman said.
 
"They did not have the kind of access that they expected. They did not have the freedom of movement that they need to do their job. The crash site is not sealed off," Thomas Greminger told Reuters by telephone.
 
"In the current circumstances, they were not able to help securing this corridor that would allow access for those that would want to investigate," he said.
 
Greminger, who is Switzerland's ambassador to the European rights and security watchdog, could not immediately confirm or deny reports that rebels had fired warning shots when the team approached the plane wreckage.
 
Greminger said a team of 17 OSCE monitors had stayed at the crash site for about 75 minutes and was now returning to Donetsk. He said the team would try again on Saturday.

U.S. FBI transport investigators:
 
U.S. investigators are preparing to head to Ukraine to assist in the aftermath of the Malaysian airliner that was shot down, an official said.
 
FBI and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board personnel are headed to the region to serve in an advisory role for the investigation of Thursday's incident, the U.S. official said.
 
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said that agency would send at least one investigator but that it was not yet clear when the official would go or if other staff would be needed to assist, citing the "still fluid situation."

The NTSB also will send at least one investigator to Ukraine, although the departure date has not been set, said Keith Holloway, a spokesman for the agency.
 

International positions:

China's state news agency warned against rushing to implicate Russia in the downing of the Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine, but said those responsible must be brought to justice for the "intolerable terrorist attack".

The official Xinhua news agency said in an English-language commentary that officials from the United States, Australia and other Western countries had jumped to conclusions in pointing their fingers at the rebels in eastern Ukraine and for blaming Russia for the escalating violence.

"The accusation was apparently rash when the officials acknowledged they did not know for the time being who is responsible for the attack, while condemning Russia's military intervention," Xinhua said. The news agency said the top priority at the moment was to co-operate to "find out the real culprits, if any".

"If the plane turned out to have been shot down by a missile, the perpetrators should be brought to justice despite their motives and excuses, as it was an intolerable terrorist attack," Xinhua said.

Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron said it seemed possible that the Malaysian airliner was shot down and that, if proven, those responsible should be brought to justice.

"It is an absolutely appalling, shocking, horrific incident that has taken place and we've got to get to the bottom of what happened and how this happened," Cameron said.

"If, as seems possible, this was brought down, then those responsible must be held to account and we must lose no time in doing that."

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine were well armed and some of their weapons appeared to be coming across the border from Russia.

"It is indeed the case that the separatists are heavily- armed and there are many indications that some these weapons have come across the border from Russia," she told a news conference in Berlin.

"Therefore the border regime is of utmost importance to us." Merkel said a ceasefire was needed in Ukraine to allow a rapid independent investigation into the downing of the Malaysian airliner, adding that there were signs it was shot down.

"We need to start an independent investigation as quickly as possible. A ceasefire is needed for that and it's important that those responsible are brought to justice," she said at a news conference in Berlin.

"There are many indications that the plane was shot down so we have to take things very seriously." Merkel said the latest events had made it clear that a political solution needed to be found for Ukraine and called on Russia to work towards such a solution.

In this context, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had picked up radar facility activity from a Ukrainian 'Buk' missile system on Thursday when a Malaysian passenger airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine, RIA reported.

Russia's Itar-Tass agency quoted the ministry as saying the Ukrainian 'Buk' unit in question was located south of the provincial capital Donetsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine bore responsibility for the downing of a passenger plane in the country's east, saying it would not have happened if Kiev had not resumed a military campaign against separatists.

"This tragedy would not have happened, if there had been peace on that land, or in any case if military operations in southeastern Ukraine had not been renewed," he said in televised comments.

The crash injected an unpredictable element into the increasingly violent confrontation between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Both Ukraine's government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region have denied any responsibility for downing the aircraft.

On Thursday, Dutch prime minister ordered that flags fly at half-mast at government buildings across the country after the death of at least 154 of his country's citizens in what he said might be the worst air disaster in the Netherlands' history.

The Dutch were among 298 passengers and crew, including three infants, aboard a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed while crossing above the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian rebels are fighting forces controlled by the government in the capital Kiev.

Malaysia Airlines said it had determined the nationalities of all but four of the passengers aboard its flight MH17 which crashed in eastern Ukraine. The airline's Europe head Huib Gorter said the flight had had 189 Dutch passengers, 29 Malaysian, 27 Australian, 12 Indonesian, nine British, four German, four Belgian, three Filippino, one Canadian and one New Zealander on board as well as four of as yet unidentified nationalities.

Dutch Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten said the Netherlands would take part in an international investigation into the causes of the crash and said it was important that experts start their work at the crash site as soon as possible.

"A lot of nationals have perished, and that is why it is important that the Netherlands also, as part of the international investigation team, can start investigations as soon as possible on the location where the aircraft came down. In concert with the Ukrainian authorities, the investigation should start as soon as possible," Opstelten told reporters at a news conference in The Hague.

He said members of the Dutch Safety Board would soon leave for Kiev to conduct the investigation.