Dutch special forces could be sent to MH17 crash site

A decision is to be made this weekend on whether Dutch special forces will be sent to eastern Ukraine to protect unarmed military police and forensic investigators preparing to search for the last human remains at the MH17 crash site.

The 40 military police flew to Ukraine last night and are due to work alongside 23 Dutch forensic investigators, combing the 12 square-kilometre site near the village of Grabovo. However, concerns for their safety have been expressed by MPs and police unions.

The Netherlands police federation, which represents 19,000 officers, said that while it had expected that police might take part in an operation with a UN mandate, for example, "sending 40 unarmed officers is not what we were thinking of".

Australian officers

The Dutch have been working closely with the Australian government, and yesterday Australian prime minister Tony Abbott said he was sending 100 more federal police officers to join the 90 already in Europe. He confirmed that some could be armed.

Both Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans and his Australian counterpart, Julie Bishop, have been liaising with the Ukrainian government. Yesterday Mr Timmermans intimated that the mood on the ground might be softening enough to allow the investigators to finally begin their work.

“I have the impression that the separatists may have finally got the message that it is a matter of common humanity to allow all the human remains to be removed,” he said.

Perhaps as a result of the political and union resistance encountered by Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, it emerged last night that all leave has been cancelled at Dutch army commando bases in Schaarsbergen and Assen.

Forces on standby

There were also reports that special forces (Korps Commandotroepen) had been recalled from Mali, in west Africa, to be on standby to fly to Ukraine.

The strategy – if it gets the go-ahead – appears to be that the army commandos would provide overt protection for those working at the crash site, while the special forces would base themselves further away, ready to intervene only in the event of serious trouble with the separatists.

As preparations to secure the Malaysia Airlines crash site continue, the remains of another 75 of those on board were flown to Eindhoven yesterday.

They were transferred with full honours in a fleet of hearses to the identification centre in Hilversum.

Another 38 bodies are expec- ted to arrive today, bringing the total brought back so far to 227 of the 298 passengers and crew.

As the repatriation nears an end, Schiphol airport announced yesterday that there would be a permanent memorial to the MH17 victims, probably in terminal three.