Ukraine says rebels covering up crime

KIEV, Ukraine - Amid growing international outrage about the handling of the Malaysia Airlines crash site, Ukrainian officials accused pro-Russian rebels Saturday of confiscating victims' bodies and plane parts to obscure their involvement in the downing of the passenger jet and the deaths of all 298 people aboard.

A top Ukrainian counterintelligence official also said that his service had proof that Russia supplied the antiaircraft missile system that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over territory controlled by the separatists, although much of the evidence appeared circumstantial.

Aviation investigators from around the world were converging on Kiev on Saturday in the hopes of beginning their work, but it remained unclear when they would gain full access to a mammoth site deep in rebel-held territory in the eastern part of the country. Ukrainian officials warned that the chance for an impartial inquiry was quickly slipping away as bodies were moved and at least some plane remnants were loaded onto trucks.

International observers were allowed only brief access to the site on Saturday and were restricted in their movements by the heavily armed rebels, some of whom appeared drunk, witnesses said.

"Their key task is to destroy possible evidence," said Andriy Parubiy, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council. "It will be hard to conduct a full investigation with some of the objects being taken away, but we will do our best."

Ukraine and Western officials have said that Russia is providing support and equipment to the rebels.

The Kremlin has denied that it has sent weapons to the rebels, and it has continued to take a strong line against the West even after the plane crash, issuing sanctions Saturday against 13 Americans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions that were announced the day before Thursday's attack on the plane.

Ukrainian officials said that at least 38 of the 192 bodies that have been discovered had been removed from the scene and brought to the nearby rebel-held city of Donetsk.

Temperatures have been in the 80s and the bodies have been rapidly decomposing, witnesses said.

Konstantin Batozsky, an adviser to Serhiy Taruta, governor of the Donetsk region, said these actions by the rebels were meant to undermine an independent investigation and to "make all the procedures illegitimate."

Vitaly Nayda, counterintelligence chief of Ukraine's security service, offered photographs and said Ukraine had evidence of the movement of three Buk M-1 antiaircraft missile systems from rebel-held territory into Russian territory early Friday, less than 12 hours after the plane was downed.

Ukrainian officials have said that a missile from a Buk M-1 launcher was used to shoot down the aircraft.

Two of the antiaircraft systems were spotted entering Russia from Ukraine at 2 a.m. Friday, he said. One had its full complement of four missiles, but the other was missing a missile, he said. Two hours later, he said, a convoy of three vehicles that included one of the launchers and a control truck crossed into Russia.

The claims could not be immediately confirmed. In Washington, an Obama administration official said that while U.S. intelligence had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the Ukrainian claim, both the Ukrainian photos and U.S.-obtained information was still being examined for confirmation.

Nayda said that Ukrainian military services had not left any operational Buk M-1 launchers in territory where the rebels could have seized them when the rebels took over bases and territory in eastern Ukraine this year. He suggested they must have come from Russia and said Ukraine had evidence that at least one launcher system was on its territory Monday.

Rebels have denied possessing the launchers, although social media files linked to a rebel leader, Igor Girkin, appeared to boast of having the systems. The claims were deleted this week after the plane was shot down.

A top rebel leader said Saturday that his side was not tampering with the evidence, even as rebels on the scene appeared to be loading at least some parts of the plane onto trucks. The leader said he was eager for international investigators to come as soon as possible.

"Currently in this area there are no active hostilities," Alexander Borodai told reporters in Donetsk. "But the situation may deteriorate at any time."

Fighting raged elsewhere in the region Saturday, especially in Luhansk near the Russian border, where 16 civilians were killed, according to the city council's website.

The attack on the plane and the subsequent treatment of the crime scene appear to be hardening European attitudes against Russia.

Most of the 298 victims were Dutch citizens, and the chaos Saturday drew a harsh condemnation from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who said he had told Russian President Vladmir Putin "that the opportunity is fading to quickly show the world that he is serious about wanting to help." The Netherlands had previously been cautious about criticizing Russia, a major trading partner.

Rutte also lashed out at the rebels, saying he was "shocked by the images of completely disrespectful behavior" at the crash site. "This is outright disgusting," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Putin on Saturday, asking him to "use his influence on the separatists" to arrange a cease-fire to allow investigators to pursue their work, a step the Kremlin said it supported.

Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysia's minister of transportation, said his government is "deeply concerned the crash site not been properly secured and the integrity of the site has been compromised." Blocking access to the site "cannot be tolerated," he said.

Russia and the rebels have denied any involvement in the attack on the Boeing 777-200, which claimed the lives of 192 Dutch citizens, 44 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, one Canadian and one person from New Zealand. One passenger held dual Dutch-U.S. citizenship.

The pro-Russian separatists had said Friday that they would allow the victims' bodies to be transported out of rebel-held territory because they did not have enough refrigerated facilities for all the bodies. But Ukrainian officials said Saturday that they were still trying to negotiate safe passage for teams of investigators and international observers.

A spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said a team of 24 international observers had seen people moving bodies and putting them in body bags. The team was sharply restricted in what it could do and see, he said.

Rebels "have what they describe as experts, so-called experts here," OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said. "They've brought body bags and they're moving the bodies to the side of the road, as far as we can tell."

"We don't know who they are," Bociurkiw said of the people moving the bodies. "We are unarmed civilians, so we're not in a position to argue heavily with people with heavy arms."