As valuable minutes turned into hours, the forensic teams waited. International concern about the contamination of the crash site mounted as images of armed separatists delving through the rubble were broadcast. Some thought the stalling and rummaging through the rubble was a deliberate effort to make evidence disappear. Australian prime minister Tony Abbott described what was happening at the scene as a coverup: ‘After the crime comes the cover-up,’ he told reporters. ‘What we have seen is evidence of tampering on an industrial scale and obviously that must stop.’
Australian minister for foreign affairs Julie Bishop sat in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Sydney on the morning of 18 July watching TV images of pro-Russian separatists picking through belongings of victims of Flight MH17. She realised immediately that access to the crash site was imperative. The Abbott government’s National Security Committee of Cabinet had decided within hours of the tragedy that international backing in the form of a United Nations resolution was needed to safeguard access to the crash site so that victims’ remains could be retrieved and a proper investigation could begin.
Rushing to New York, Bishop met up with her Dutch counterpart, Frans Timmermans. A UN resolution that the two had thrown together in just a few days, backing access to the site, would be presented to the United Nations Security Council. Before the meeting Bishop had strategically laid out copies of Australian newspapers with the horror headlines about the tragedy. There was a heated discussion with Moscow, whose representative refused to support the resolution.
In an emotional and powerful speech to the UN Security Council, Frans Timmermans, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, called upon Russia to take action, urging them to back the resolution tabled by Australia, demanding that armed groups immediately surrender control of the crash site of Flight MH17 to allow for the repatriation of victims. It proposed an international investigation into the attack.
Pausing at times to contain his emotions, Frans Timmermans spoke to the United Nations of his shock at the treatment of the bodies, the indignity of the news coverage, and the obfuscation of the details of the crash. In his speech he recalled how men, women and a staggering number of children had lost their lives on their way to holiday destinations, their homes and loved ones. He pondered as to what had happened during those final moments of their lives: ‘Did they lock hands with their loved ones? Did they hold their children close to their hearts? Did they look each other in the eyes, one final time, in a wordless goodbye? We will never know,’ he said.
Timmermans stressed that the Netherlands, like Australia, had one priority that clearly stood out above all others: ‘to bring the victims’ remains home.’ He expressed gratitude for Australia’s role in drafting and negotiating the resolution, especially thanking Australia’s minister for foreign affairs, Julie Bishop; he thanked the countries that had expressed support for it. He demanded respectful treatment of the crash site and dignity for the victims and the multitudes who mourned their loss. ‘My country will not rest until all the facts are known and justice is served.’
The United Nations unanimously adopted Resolution 2166. The resolution expressed support for the ‘efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines’ and called on all United Nations member states ‘to provide any requested assistance to civil and criminal investigations’.
With the resolution in place it was now a question of making sure it was implemented, so Julie Bishop flew to Kiev with Timmermans. Thinking they had a deal, she travelled to Kharkiv, where bodies of victims were due to arrive by train. There was no Australian embassy to back her in Ukraine so not all relevant information was passed on to her. When the news came through that the parliament in Kiev had broken for the summer recess, she was stunned. The signature needed from the Ukrainian government to implement the resolution could not be obtained. Bishop found herself flying back to Kiev together with Timmermans that same evening where the two ‘made complete nuisances of themselves’ in an effort to have the Ukrainian parliament recalled. Four days after MH17 was downed, the resolution was signed by all parties including Ukraine.
Despite Bishop’s and Timmermans’ efforts, access to the site remained uncertain. On 21 July 2014, Angus Houston, a retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force, was appointed the prime minister’s special envoy to Ukraine, with the objective to ‘lead Australia’s efforts on the ground in Ukraine to help recover, identify and repatriate Australians killed in the MH17 crash’. He was starting to put together a recovery team in Kiev. Thinking there was an agreement with the separatists, Houston and his men made their way to a checkpoint only to find they were not allowed through. Ukraine’s parliament had approved access by armed Australian police, but the separatists then insisted they be unarmed. Australia and the Netherlands consented despite their initial reluctance, but access to the site remained very uncertain. The days were hectic for everyone involved and National Security Council meetings were often called for during the early morning hours in Kiev. It was on one of those early mornings that Bishop, normally fashionably dressed, was called to discuss matters with Australia’s prime minister. Sleepy-eyed, she stumbled downstairs to the conference room in the hotel where officials had installed a secure phone line for her to talk to the prime minister and senior colleagues back home. Barefoot, clad in a set of Qantas-issued pyjamas, she did not realise she would be beamed in back to Canberra from Ukraine via a video link instead of by phone. It was too late to do anything, and as the video link between Canberra and Kiev connected, silence fell in Canberra. Cabinet colleagues and senior officials stared at the foreign minister in her nightwear until one of them broke the silence with the inquiry: ‘Going casual today, Julie?’ Keeping a straight face, Bishop got right down to business.
As precious hours passed after the crash there were pleas for ceasefires, but none of them were acknowledged. Putin said in a televised public appearance that the downing of the airliner must not be used for political ends and urged separatists to allow international experts to access the crash site. Borodai and Putin both called on the militants to lay down their arms so that the remains of the victims could be removed from the site, but many separatists did not feel accountable to either Putin or Borodai. So the fighting went on.
It became apparent that neither Borodai nor Putin had full control over the different rebel groups; small pockets of militants seemed to be engaged in their own private fights. The Ukrainian government appeared to be dealing with the same problem. When they were asked why Ukrainian troops were still fighting thirty kilometres away, the government in Kiev denied sending the regular army into the Donetsk region; they claimed small ‘self-organised’ pro-Ukrainian groups, over which they had no control, were fighting the rebels in the city. More than twenty civilians were reported to have died in scuffles in Luhansk on 18 July. Journalists travelling to the crash site reported that the road from Donetsk to the site was punctuated by five different rebel checkpoints, all running their own separate document checks.
There was fear that the victims’ belongings would become a magnet for looters who, according to Ukrainian politicians, had descended on the site of the crash in the hope of salvaging valuables. People in the Netherlands and Australia were beside themselves with rage. A furious Mark Rutte, no longer able to maintain a neutral stand, said that Putin had ‘one last chance to show he means to help’. But some journalists visiting the scene said they had not witnessed any looting and that the only people tampering with belongings or bodies were the rescue workers. The local Ukrainians were not uncaring people. It was as much a tragedy for them as for the victims, and they were all working under very difficult circumstances. But the televised footage of rough, armed and seemingly drunken rebels holding stuffed animals and victims’ passports up to the camera had set the mood.