1. The Prime Minister demands “justice” as Julie Bishop arrives in Washington.
“We owe it to the dead, all the dead, we owe it to the families, all the families to do everything in our power to respect the bodies, to find the truth and to ensure justice is done,” Tony Abbott told the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes last night, three days after flight MH17 was downed killing all 298 people on board including 37 Australians.
His comments came as reports of widespread looting and mayhem at the crash site filled the world’s media.
Mr Abbott condemned the way the site was being handled saying that reports have emerged that bodies have been put into bags and “off to who knows where.”
Meanwhile this morning the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has arrived in Washington where she will lobby the UN Security Council to support an Australian-sponsored resolution calling” on all states and actors in the region to cooperate fully in relation to the international investigation of the incident, including with respect to immediate access to the crash site … in an effort to strengthen the safety of international civil aviation and to prevent any recurrence of such use of force against civilian aircraft”.
The UN could vote on the resolution as early as tomorrow.
2. Reaction from other world leaders
British PM David Cameron has warned that the world must “turn this moment of outrage into a moment of action” with reports that he is close to securing tougher sanctions against Russia following the downing of flight MH17 after speaking to Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande.
He told media that Mrs Merkel, the German Chancellor, and Mr Hollande, the French President, agreed that the EU must reconsider its approach and be prepared to impose further sanctions on Tuesday.