Dutch prime minister won’t release MH17 diplomatic report

Prime minister Mark Rutte on Friday said he would not agree to a request by opposition parties to publish a report of a diplomatic meeting in Ukraine, just days prior to the downing of Malaysian Airways flight MH17.

A senior Dutch diplomat was at the meeting and there have been claims that Ukraine officials warned about the dangers of using eastern Ukrainian airspace. During the meeting diplomats were told that a Ukrainian transport plane was shot down by a Russian missile.

Opposition MPs had asked ministers  to publish the report of that meeting so they can find out if the warning was picked up and passed on to the Dutch authorities, as claimed.

Foreign minister Bert Koenders said earlier there is no concrete report as such but ‘diplomatic traffic’. Publishing this is not an option because it would send a precedent and could be damaging, the minister said.