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Malaysia
excluded from MH17 probe – for 'not pointing fingers at Russia'?
The
country that owned the shot down MH17 jet, which was carrying a
number of Malaysian citizens and was flown by a Malaysian crew, has
been excluded from the criminal investigation due to its political
neutrality, the nation's media reported.
:
RT,
28
November, 2014
Malaysia
has been left out of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which has
been tasked with learning more about the details of the tragedy which
took place over Ukraine in July. This is despite the Dutch prime
minister stating the importance of Malaysia's cooperation during a
visit to the country this month. The JIT includes the Netherlands,
Belgium, Ukraine, and Australia.
Experts
from the Southeast Asian country are not taking part in the criminal
probe into the reason behind the Boeing 777 crash, which killed all
298 people on board. Those victims represented 10 nations, and
Malaysia had the second highest number of casualties at 43. Most of
the passengers – 193 in total – were from the Netherlands.
Earlier
in November, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar demanded the
"active
participation of Malaysian experts in the work of the joint
investigative group,"
while debris for further investigation was collected from the site
without the country's involvement.
After
the completion of the debris collection was announced, Malaysia said
the action by the JIT countries was “unilateral,”
an informed source in the Malaysian capital told TASS news agency.
A picture taken on November 7, 2014,
shows a part of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at the crash site
in the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), some 80km east of Donetsk. (AFP
Photo/Dmitar Dilkoff)
According
to Malaysian media, the country's transport minister Datuk Seri Liow
Tiong Lai said that Malaysia had expressed its stance "very
clear"
that it must be part of the criminal investigation, and informed
Dutch authorities of its intention.
Malaysian ambassador to Ukraine
Chuah Teong Ban reportedly expressed concerns that his country would
not be allowed to inspect the debris unless it became part of the
criminal investigation team.
The
police chief said he would head to Amsterdam on December 3 to discuss
Malaysia’s participation in the process with JIT members, joined by
attorney general Abdul Gani Patail.
'Political play in the situation'
"When
the crash happened, we did not blame any parties, neither Russia nor
Ukraine, as we would like to take a look at the concrete evidence,"
head associate professor in research and aviation at Kuala Lumpur
University, Dr. Mohamed Harridon, told RT. He added that unlike
"western
counterparts,"
Malaysia has taken a “neutral
role,"
and not "pointed
fingers at Russia,"
which could be the reason for the country's exclusion from the
investigation.
Saying
that Malaysia's participation would "push
for a more balanced power into the investigation,"
Harridon – whose views on the matter were also published in one of
Malaysia's oldest newspapers, the New Strait Times – pointed out
that the country being part of the investigation was only right and
"legal."
"If
you have evidence, it should be investigated by all parties – also
by neutral parties – [and] investigated thoroughly, instead of
putting the blame initially on one party,"
he told RT, adding that there is "a
political play in that situation."
"We
are trying to lobby ourselves to be [included] in the investigation,
we have laid out several statements, we have passengers dead in the
crash, the plane belongs to Malaysia Airlines, and according to the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), we should be part
of the team,"
Harridon said, referring to the ICAO Chicago Convention, which states
that the operator of a crashed flight must not be left out of an
investigation.
"The
exclusion from the investigation appears to be an indication that the
investigation’s objectivity has been compromised and that the
conclusions it draws will likely be politically motivated,"
New York-based geopolitical analyst Ulson Gunnar wrote in New Eastern
Outlook magazine.
Gunnar
added that Kiev is "a
possible suspect in the investigation,"
as it had "confirmed
to possess weapons capable of reaching the altitude MH17 was flying
at when it was allegedly hit"
– so Ukraine's "inclusion
in JIT represents a monumental conflict of interest."
'Our
participation will help prevent attempts to conceal the real story'
Saying
that Malaysia must take a leading role in the investigation, the
advisor for the country's Suaram human rights organization, Kua Kia
Soong, raised the issue of an alleged non-disclosure agreement drawn
up by the four participating countries, The Star newspaper reported.
"Something
simple like the fact that these four countries can keep the findings
of the MH17 crash to themselves is unacceptable,"
Kua said. He added that the consensus of the four countries which is
allegedly needed ahead of revealing findings to the public is also
inappropriate.
"One
can understand why Ukraine is in the team since that is where the
plane was shot from the sky. We can understand the Netherlands’
membership of the JIT since the flight originated from Amsterdam. But
why is Belgium in the JIT?,"
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a
Just World (JUST), said, according to The Malaysian Insider.
The
scholar said that if Belgium was on the list because of Brussels
being the administrative capital of the European Union – which "may
have some aviation responsibilities over commercial flights in the
continent"
– it still makes no sense, because "then
it is the EU, not Belgium, which should have a place in the team."
He
also said that if Australia is in the JIT because a number of its
citizens were killed in the tragedy, Malaysia should not have been
sidelined in the criminal investigations. He added that the US should
be participating too, "since
Boeing, an American multinational, manufactured the 777 passenger
jet."
"Our
participation in the investigation will at least help to check any
attempt to conceal or camouflage the real story,"
Muzaffar said, as quoted by The Malaysian Insider.
Professor
Mohamed Harridon doubts the whole truth will ever be revealed.
"This
is a long process, probably [will] take years, and there still [will]
be speculations. Perhaps we [will] only know 60 percent of the
truth,"
he told RT.
The
Dutch Security Council announced on Friday that the task of
collecting the Boeing 777 wreckage had been completed at the site,
and fragments still left in Ukraine are of no interest to
investigators. However, local agencies will be charged for removing
any remaining fragments from the crash site, TASS reported.
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