IS a resolution to the criminal investigation of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 imminent? Recently the joint investigation team (JIT) led by the Dutch, with representatives from Malaysia, Ukraine, Australia and Belgium, shared its preliminary findings. It placed the blame squarely on the rebels of East Ukraine over which theatre of war the Boeing 777 was shot down on July 17, 2014. The offending weapon, a surface to air “BUK missile 9M38 series”, is said to have been carried over the border from Russia and later returned, but the report stopped short of implicating Moscow. The presentation made by the Dutch team leader identified 100 people as responsible but no names were revealed. The investigation will continue until January 2018 and after that a final report will be made public.
Progress has, therefore, been made no matter how limited and a more concrete picture is emerging. Unfortunately, although it was a criminal investigation, there is no indication of why those said to have perpetrated the crime did it. Why the rebels shot down a civilian aeroplane was not explained. This is a matter of some import for purposes of liability if the legal precedent of the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the United States navy over the Persian Gulf in Iranian waters and over Iranian airspace is anything to go by. If nothing else it would bring true closure to the tragedy for the bereaving families. In economic terms, the party sued for reparations must be accurately identified if the 9/11 debacle is not to be repeated where at one point a US court ordered Iran to shoulder the burden of compensation when it was never, at any moment, implicated. What can be safely assumed is that Flight MH17 was caught in the crosshairs of a civil war between Kiev and its eastern provinces. Until the final report identifies the 100 suspects no closure is possible. Indeed, JIT, after two years of intensive investigation has come to this interim conclusion intended to appease victims’ families, some of whom have threatened to sue Kiev for not closing its airspace to commercial flights.
For Malaysia, the shooting down of MH17 was a national tragedy. Not only were some of the victims Malaysians, it was a craft of the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines, whose safety record was near unimpeachable until 2014. A reputation lost is a business ruined and, consequently, redeem it Malaysia must. No blame should be placed on the airline. Those responsible must be brought to book and closure is only possible when the indisputable truth is told. Was it a mistake? Was it intentional and if so, why? Why was this particular airliner downed when it was reported that other airliners were in the airspace at the same time; Singapore Airlines, for example? Malaysia needs these questions answered so that any notion harboured that Malaysia Airlines was in some way negligent is completely dispelled; and, that grieving families be appropriately compensated goes without saying.