Aussie Death Toll in Ukraine now at 36..

 
   AFTER having my previous post on the Ukraine Disaster thread being so unconscionably and ignominiously trolled by 3 or 4 of the "usual suspects" on this site, I'm relocating this part of my updates to a (hopefully) quieter sphere :

YESTERDAY, the Australian death toll was raised to 36, after 8 'permanent residents' were added to the 28 on the Friday totals... Australians lost in the tragedy remain second on the list, after the Netherlands..


THIS is now the second highest number of Aussie civilians lost in any single such military stuff-up/militia attack/bombing/terrorist attack, after the Bali bombings back in 2002, where there were 88 Aussies among the 202 dead back then (in that attack, Aussies comprised the highest number, followed by the Balinese local workers themselves, who also made up a lot of the 200+ injuries..). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings

TONY Abbott says he fears the chaos at the crash site of MH17 in east Ukraine will continue as Russian-backed rebels frustrate investigators and hamper the dignified treatment and recovery of bodies.

Clearly emotional, the Prime Minister said today these were “wrenching times’’ for Australians and there would hardly be anyone who had not been emotionally touched by the tragedy.

“You look at the faces of the dead and they’re your neighbours, they’re your friends, they could be your kids because let’s face it, we are a people who like to travel and my own daughters flew on MH17 some months ago on their way home from Europe. So this is a tragedy which touches us deeply,’’ Mr Abbott said.

The downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight on Friday as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur claimed the lives of 28 Australians and eight permanent residents.

“There are 36 people who call Australia home who have been snuffed out, snuffed out,’’ Mr Abbott said. “This is a horrific, a horrific crime and we will do what we can to ensure that people are treated with respect but that justice is done.’’

Using strong language, he said “Russia can’t wash its hand of this’’ because the tragedy happened in Russian-controlled territory, involved Russian-backed rebels who were probably using a Russian-supplied weapon.

“There are excuses, there is blame shifting, there is hand washing going on and that’s not acceptable. It’s simply not acceptable,’’ Mr Abbott told the ABC’s Insiders program.

Australia is spearheading a push through the United Nations Security Council for a full, impartial and international investigation into the downing of the flight and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has flown to the United States.

Asked if Russia had indicated support for Australia’s resolution, Mr Abbott said: “My fear is that Russia will say the right thing but that on the ground interference with the site, interference with investigators, interference with the dignified treatment of bodies will continue.

“That’s my fear.’’

There have been two attempts by investigators to get on to the site, Mr Abbott said, the first was interrupted by gunfire and the second attempt was also hampered.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/mh17/tony-abbott-fears-ukraine-rebels-will-frustrate-mh17-crash-investigation/story-fno88it0-1226995023475

Tragic all round for all nationalities involved.

Very sad.

Putin has now been shamed into allowing access and a refrigerated train to move the bodies, but people had been taken credit cards and the bodies had been piled up rotting, it was being used like a tourist site. Denmark had the most people on board, they are distraught.

Lone Wolf wrote: 
    AFTER having my previous post on the Ukraine Disaster thread being so unconscionably and ignominiously trolled by 3 or 4 of the "usual suspects" on this site, I'm relocating this part of my updates to a (hopefully) quieter sphere :

YESTERDAY, the Australian death toll was raised to 36, after 8 'permanent residents' were added to the 28 on the Friday totals... Australians lost in the tragedy remain second on the list, after the Netherlands..


THIS is now the second highest number of Aussie civilians lost in any single such military stuff-up/militia attack/bombing/terrorist attack, after the Bali bombings back in 2002, where there were 88 Aussies among the 202 dead back then (in that attack, Aussies comprised the highest number, followed by the Balinese local workers themselves, who also made up a lot of the 200+ injuries..). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings

Horrifying!

 

I saw the totals list again today, and as of last night, the number of Malaysian dead had risen to 44.
(Placing them into second place among the casualties..).

Casualties as of 19th, were:

Netherlands   192
Malaysia          44
Australia          28
Indonesia         12
Britain               9
Belgium             4
Germany           4
Philippines         3
Canada              1
New Zealand      1

Ben, as LW is the one who has disrupted and been bloody rude on the other threads, could you please almalgamate them all into one.

 

THE figure for Australian 'residents' murdered in this tragedy was revised up to 37 on Sunday.

The biggest single group of "permanent residents" was a Dutch family living in Victoria ~ the parents and three school aged children.


IN relation to delegates on their way to the HIV AIDS conference currently being held in Melbourne this week, the initial number killed in the crash was thought to be 6 over the weekend. On radio news yesterday (Monday), they were now saying 7..

 

 

THE total for Aussie "residents" has now crept up to 39, where some listed under other nationalities are found to be iiving over here 'permanently'.

The number of Australian nationals listed remains at 28.

The number of Aussie investigators, officials and military in the Ukraine numbered over 45 a couple of days ago.
Dutch and Australian transport planes are being used to carry the bodies to the Netherlands.
An official Aussie delegation inc. the GG was in Holland with the Dutch officials and royals yesterday.

I hope LW that all are returned home and can be identified.  Watching coverage yesterday I think like all the other poor victims it will be a big hope.

Am I still hearing the separatists have removed some bodies and no one knows where they are ?

gerber wrote:
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Am I still hearing the separatists have removed some bodies and no one knows where they are ?

THERE  were 'unconfirmed' reports 3 or 4 days ago that some 30-odd bodies had been moved and official sources didn't know where they were at the time, but by two days ago when they started repatriating the dead they were then stating that some 190+ were accounted for...

THAT still means that around a hundred more corpses, potentially broken up either during the initial explosion, or on impact, are still missing in that crash zone (covering a few kilometres !) ~ and they have been exposed to summer weather and possible animal predation for more than six days now..

A brief summary of the last few days, as reported in news stories, (and ignoring conspiracies and guesses):

DUTCH officials were put in charge of taking home and identifying the bodies on Tuesday, while Aussie investigators are now "officially" in charge of the crime scene ~ at the request and invitation of the Ukrainian government.

NOT easy when the actual "crime scene" is in the middle of a war zone, and still under Russian military&separatist "rebel" control; though the number of soldiers and rebels had dwindled markedly over the two days..

YESTERDAY was the first day that the international delegates and officials were able to access the actual site ~ up until then they were only getting as far as a kilometre or so from the main part of the plane; with a few photographers and film crews telephoto lenses showing us the images we've all been viewing...