Bones and wreckage found at MH17 crashsite handed over to Dutch authorities
At October 5 the Donetsk People Republic Prosecution Service handed over bones and parts of the MH17 aircraft to Dutch authorities. This was done in the Park Inn hotel in Donetsk with OSCE as a proxy.
In July freelance journalist Patrick Lancaster ,who reports with a clear preference on the DPR side, found bones at the burn site. This is the area where the fuselage and wings of MH17 impacted.
It is possible these bones are of humans.
Later he collected small pieces of wreckage and delivered these to the mayor of the area.
After some long negotiations with OSCE at October 5 the hand over took place. The spokeswomen of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice stated that the bones will be brought to the Netherlands as quickly as possible for forensic investigation. If these are of passengers the next of kin will be informed first. Also the wreckage parts will have a forensic investigation.
That is a remarkable statement. Earlier Dutch Public Prosecution Service stated the wreckage parts which were not recovered did not have any value for the investigation. So I do not understand the purpose of a forensic investigation.
When I called again with the spokeswomen of the Dutch Ministry of Security at October 31, she told me that Dutch investigators found remains of animals but also possilbe human remains. As the bones are small, it while take some time to extract DNA from small bones.
RT covered the hand over here. The two Dutch representatives are Mr Daalman and Mr Klaas Valk. One of them says the remains were found at the site where the planecrash had happened. It is remarkable that he used the word ‘planecrash’ and not ‘shot down’.
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My guess on the forensic investigation of the wreckage parts is that they’re just going by protocol. To use English/American expressions “doing it by the numbers” or “going through the motions” in case someone asks at a trial if these pieces were checked.
They already have the useful evidence from the crashsite and wreckage.
If any of the bone fragments found are indeed human I hope they can be used to identify the two remaining passengers of whom nothing has been found.
I’m a bit cynical as to why handovers like these happen though. There’s a protocol in place with the mayors office in Hrabove for collection of artifacts. It’s like they’re trying to be demonstrate that they are co-operating with the investigation while at the same time trying to suggest there are lots of things the investigation missed or failed to collect. What they don’t highlight of course is that sympathetic propagandists (such as Lancaster) can move about the area unmolested and without intimidation – a luxury not afforded to anyone they percieve as a threat.
‘Daalman’. Not ‘Daalsma’.
thx. corrected