Next stop Iraq as Tony Abbott ends first stage of mission

TONY Abbott is confident any bodily remains and possessions that could be recovered from the MH17 crash site have been collected.

Image ©Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 11/08/2014. Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott visits Eindhoven Air Base, Holland, to meet the Royal Australian Air Force and tour a C-17 aircraft. Squadron Leader Dean Bolton (right) meets the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Picture by Ben Stevens / i-Images

TONY Abbott is confident any bodily remains and possessions that could be recovered from the East Ukraine crash site of Malaysia Airlines MH17 have been ­collected and the first stage of mission Bring Them Home has been completed.

The Prime Minister, visiting The Hague last night, has ruled out any further attempts to send Australian Federal Police or military support to the site near Torez after the Dutch Prime Minister announced last week that it was too dangerous to proceed because of fierce fighting between Ukrainians and the rebel separatists in the area.

Mr Abbott met Mark Rutte to convey Australia’s condolences for the loss of those on board MH17 and to talk about the next steps to bring the guilty parties to account.

But the Australian military focus has turned to the US ­humanitarian mission in Iraq and the military team involved in The Netherlands’ segment of Operation Bring Them Home will be redeployed to the Middle East following further talks with the British Minister for Defence ­Michael Fallon and the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond at 10 Downing Street this morning.

Mr Abbott said his British talks will be centred on “counterterrorism operations, and about the deteriorating strategic situation in Iraq and elsewhere’’.

Britain has been involved in supplying some of the military planes for humanitarian food and water drops to the desperate ­Yazidis in northern Iraq, but Mr Fallon said the country wouldn’t be involved in any US military strikes.

Mr Abbott yesterday told Dutch defence chief General Tom Middendorp he was encouraged by the joint Australian and Dutch co-operation to retrieve as much as possible from the Ukraine crash site. “Operation Bring Them Home is by no means ended but certainly the first phase has been put into practice and I think we can be confident what is readily recoverable has been and that’s the least we can do for our people, for their grieving relatives and understandably angry people who want to see a better world,” Mr Abbott said.

Forensic scientists revealed they have conducted post mortems on 703 body parts removed from the site, including 178 largely intact bodies, but had not yet been able to put a number on the total number of bodies they may have. Thirty-eight Australian citizens or residents were on board the doomed flight that contained 298 passengers and crew.

Bill Shorten yesterday stepped up calls for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be blocked from attending the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane in November over Russia’s involvement with the separatists. “I don’t think that Putin is welcome here,” he said.