Netherlands to coordinate MH17 victim identification efforts
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E-mail Xinhua, July 21, 2014
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared Sunday during a press conference in The Hague that the Netherlands will coordinate the efforts of identifying the MH17 victims.
The Netherlands was hit the hardest of all countries in the air disaster with the Malaysian Airlines flight happened in eastern Ukraine, with 193 Dutch citizens onboard among the total of 298 victims killed by the crash on Thursday. The Dutch prime minister sees it as a priority to identify the bodies of all the victims and bring them to the country of origin.
"Yesterday and today me and Frans Timmermans (Foreign Minister) had contact with many parties involved in repatriation of the dead people," said Rutte. "We have agreed that the Netherlands will get the international coordination of the identification of the victims."
Tonight a unit of the Ministry of Defense will travel from Eindhoven airport to Kharkov, with people and resources to organize the coordination center in Kharkov on board. The Dutch police chief Gert Wibbelink will lead that identification team.
In addition, Rutte spoke about the refrigerated train wagons in the disaster area containing bodies of victims, but apparently going nowhere. "All efforts are now focused to get this train on territory controlled by Ukraine," said Rutte. "Among other things, Frans Timmermans telephoned Secretary of State John Kerry about this on Sunday. The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) does the negotiations with the pro-Russian separatists."
Rutte himself on Sunday had contact with, among others, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and, for the third time this week, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "All these conversations have to contribute to our main goal: to put pressure on all parties to get the bodies back," Rutte said. "In that context Timmermans travels to New York now for consultations with the United Nations and members of the Security Council."
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