[July 28, 2014]SYDNEY (Reuters) - A joint
Australian-Dutch probe team will renew efforts on Monday to gain access
to the crash site of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine, Australian
Federal Police said, after fierce fighting kept them away the previous
day.
Evidence could be lost if fighting continued, said Deputy
Commissioner of National Security Andrew Colvin, and the chances of
finding the remains of all 298 dead grew slimmer as time passed.
An assessment would be made early on Monday Ukraine time of whether
it was safe for the 49-strong team to approach the site, Colvin told
reporters.
"The fighting intensified overnight. Whether the intensification
diminishes over coming days and creates a more permissive
environment, it may be as early as today that we say that fighting
has diminished enough to go back in."
Clashes overnight between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels
killed at least 13 people.
However, Colvin acknowledged that it could be some time before the
team gained access to the crash site.
"There remains a possibility that we may not get there in the near
future," he said. "I don't want to consider the fact that we may
never get to that site."
Ukraine said on Sunday it was trying to dislodge the rebels, but
denied it was fighting near the crash site, saying the separatists
had put the monitors off by falsely claiming the army was operating
nearby.
The unarmed Australian and Dutch team of police investigators,
guided by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), which has already made a short visit to the site, needed to
be assured of a sizeable window of time at the site to complete the
probe, Colvin said.
"We don't want to put our officers in danger for the sake of a brief
look at the site," he said. "We've had a look at the site already...
the next stage of this is to get in and start the examination."
(Reporting by Jane Wardell; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Evidence could be lost if fighting continued, said Deputy
Commissioner of National Security Andrew Colvin, and the chances of
finding the remains of all 298 dead grew slimmer as time passed.
