Australia prepares tosend 50 police to ukraine

Australia has sent 50 police to London in anticipation of deploying them to Ukraine to secure the Malaysian plane crash site as part of a potential UN team that's under consideration, the Australian prime minister said on Thursday.

Tony Abbott said he accepted "there is potential for difficulty" in deploying police in an area of eastern Ukraine held by separatists who are suspected to have shot down the airliner.

Details such as which countries would contribute, whether officers would be armed and protected by international troops were yet to be agreed, Abbott said.

But he expected their mission would be completed within a few weeks of arrival.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was traveling with her Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans to Kiev to seek a memorandum of understanding with the Ukrainian government that will allow international police to secure the crash site, Abbott said.

He said the task of the international police team would be to ensure a full and thorough search of the site so that all victims' remains were recovered and sent to the Netherlands for identification.

AP

(China Daily 07/25/2014 page10)