A woman cries in front of Schiphol airport on July 19, 2014, two days after Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine. AFP
Reuters/Amsterdam
Russian President Vladimir Putin has one last chance to show he is serious about helping rescuers recover the bodies of the victims of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the Dutch prime minister said on Saturday.
More than half the passengers aboard the flight, which crashed near a village in eastern Ukraine, were Dutch citizens, and images of recognisably Dutch personal belongings and passports strewn across the crash site have shocked the Dutch public.
"I was shocked at the pictures of utterly disrespectful behaviour at this tragic spot. It's revolting," Mark Rutte said on Saturday, referring to allegations that the bodies of the passengers, including 193 of his countrymen, were being dragged about and allowed to rot at the scene.
"He has one last chance to show he means to help," Rutte said of Putin minutes after what he described as a "very intense" conversation with the Russian leader. He added that the leaders of Germany, Britain and Australia shared his view.
Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, who is in the Ukrainian capital Kiev with a team of Dutch forensics experts trying to secure safe access to the crash site, said access so far had been too limited to allow them to carry out their work of identifying the victims and repatriating them.
