Photos: Ukraine rebels move MH17 victim's bodies, tamper with crash site
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Ukrainian Emergency workers carry a victim's body in a bag under the supervision of pro-Russian fighters at the crash site of MH17. Rebels in eastern Ukraine took control Sunday of the bodies recovered from downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and the U.S. and European leaders demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin make sure rebels give international investigators full access to the crash site. AP
The body of a passenger is pictured at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region. Pro-Moscow rebels piled nearly 200 bodies from the downed Malaysian jetliner into four refrigerated boxcars: Reuters
More than three days after the jetliner crashed, international investigators still had only limited access to the sprawling fields where the plane fell: Reuters
US secretary of state John Kerry expressed outrage at the "grotesque" behavior of the rebels at the crash scene. "Drunken separatists are stacking bodies into the back of trucks, removing materials from the site," he told ABC's "This Week." : AP
Rebel leader Alexander Borodai denied the rebels were trying to tamper with evidence, saying the bodies would be turned over to a team of Malaysian experts he was expecting: Reuters
Experts said that even if investigators are granted access now, it might be too late. "Even without any deliberate attempt at a cover-up, the crash site is already compromised in forensic terms," said Keir Giles, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank: Reuters
On the diplomatic front, Western leaders stepped up the pressure on Putin. The leaders of France, Germany and Britain issued a joint statement demanding that he force the separatists to "finally allow rescuers and investigators to have free and total access to the zone": Reuters
A pro-Russian separatist walks past bodies at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Cranes at the crash scene moved big chunks of the Boeing 777, drawing condemnation from Western leaders that the rebels were tampering with the site: Reuters