Leaders stand firm on MH17 justice pledge

TONY Abbott and his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, have renewed their pledge to bring to ­justice over Flight MH17.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Tony Abbott at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday.

TONY Abbott and his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, have renewed their pledge to bring to ­justice those responsible for the destruction of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine.

After talks with Mr Rutte in Canberra yesterday, the Prime Minister confirmed his intention to speak to Vladimir Putin at this weekend’s Asia-Pacific Econom­ic Co-operation forum conference in Beijing or when Russia’s President came to the G20 summit in Brisbane next week.

Mr Abbott thanked the Dutch Prime Minister for taking the lead in co-ordinating the criminal investigation into “the atrocity” on July 17 that killed 298 passengers and crew, including 193 Dutch citizens and 38 Australians.

Mr Rutte said he had met Mr Putin at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan two weeks ago and urged him to put pressure on the separatists to allow unhindered access to the crash site.

Mr Abbott, who has previously said he would “shirt-front” Mr Putin, said yesterday that “like Prime Minister Rutte, what I’ll be saying to him is that Australia expects full Russian co-operation with the investigation”.

“We don’t want the investigation ridiculed, we don’t want the investigation compromised or sabotaged, we want full co-operation with the investigation.

“We owe it to our dead to ­secure justice, and Russia as a member of the international community owes it to the world, owes it to humanity, to ensure that justice is done and, wherever possible, the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.

“So, that’ll be the conversation that I’ll be having with Vladimir Putin at the earliest possible mome­nt.”

It is widely believed that Flight MH17 was destroyed by a Russian-built missile fired by pro-Moscow separatists who thought they were shooting at a Ukrainian military aircraft. Russia has strongly denied involvement.

Mr Rutte said he could not comment on the probe’s progress because he wanted the investigat­ors to remain fully independent.

“If it is independent then it is much more difficult for countries, probably being involved or potentially being involved, to question the outcome and that’s the reason why we are so hesitant to connect dots,” he said.

Mr Rutte said a small recovery team went to the crash site last week and found more human remains. He said there was still a lot to be done in terms of bringing those responsible to justice.

Mr Rutte will meet today with federal police, defence and foreign affairs officials who were involved in the recovery of remains from the MH17 crash site.