A mass murder never
PERSONAL items belonging to victims of the downed airliner MH17 are still being recovered from the crash site in Ukraine, but Russian-backed authorities are blocking international journalists from visiting the scene.
Four years after the airliner was destroyed by a missile, killing all 298 people on board, including 38 Australian citizens and residents, items including passports and wallets are still being found in fields around Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine.
A portion of a wing from the airliner is stored in a shed, a Malaysia Airlines pillow is being used in a house, and locals are unsure what to do with personal items they have found that should be returned to grieving families.
There are unconfirmed reports that some small, unidentified human remains may also remain at the site.
News Corp has obtained photos taken last month of personal items, including two Dutch passports, a Samsung tablet and two wallets containing bank cards and identification.
The passports belong to Miguel Panduwinata, 11, and his brother Shaka, 19. One of the wallets also belongs to Miguel. The brothers died as they travelled to Bali to visit their grandmother.
News Corp was refused access to the area in July by authorities from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Moscow-backed authorities that have taken control of the area in eastern Ukraine.
DPR officials cited two previously published News Corp stories, which they believed were negative towards Russia.
Other large international media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Radio Free Europe have been banned in the past two years.
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and keeps an iron grip on the region. This means there has been limited coverage of the conflict there.
Russia denies involvement in the MH17 outrage, despite the international Joint Investigation Team’s determination that the jet was shot down on July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile that had come from a Russian military brigade based in the city of Kursk.
It was fired from a Russiancontrolled area of Ukraine, from a Russian missile launcher that was brought in from Russia and taken back to Russia after the attack, investigators have said.
On May 24, in The Hague, the JIT said it was “convinced that the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17, originates from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile brigade … unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation’’.
It said comparative research had shown highly individual elements of the missile, and called for “insiders and eyewitnesses’’ from within the brigade to co-operate with the investigation.
On July 18 this year, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, US and the European Union issued a statement in support of the Joint Investigation Team, saying: “The JIT’s findings on Russia’s role in the downing of MH17 are compelling, significant and deeply disturbing.’’
The DPR is the Moscow-backed separatist group fighting to bring the Donetsk Oblast region of Ukraine under Russian control. The DPR is not recognised by Ukraine or the international community.
To access the site where MH17 was shot down, approval is needed from the DPR.
DPR officials denied accreditation to News Corp earlier this year, saying: “Good morning! Unfortunately you both have been denied getting accreditation in DPR.’’
When questioned by a contact in Donetsk over the refusal, extracts were sent from two News Corp articles they believed were hostile towards Russia. The first, which appears to have been written in October 2014 and published in the Herald Sun, said: “The Perth children and their grandfather Nick Norris were among 38 Australians killed when rebels shot down the Malaysia Airlines flight above eastern Ukraine on July 17.’’
This was from a report of the deaths of Perth man Nick Norris and his grandchildren Mo, Otis and Evie Maslin who were all on the flight.
The second extract singled out by the DPR read: “While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea — the first hostile taking of land in Europe since World War II — were the original triggers for the economic sanctions and military build-up in eastern Europe, NATO has been further alarmed by Putin’s growing aggression.”
This was taken from a News Corp story published in March 2018 based on a day spent with NATO forces in Lithuania.
A journalist from a major international newspaper told News Corp he had also been denied accreditation, without explanation, earlier this year.
He said he had heard from colleagues that it had become much more difficult to gain access to the site in the past 12-18 months, and even Russian journalists were finding it difficult to get into Donetsk.
He said DPR authorities probably believed they were controlling the message by keeping foreign media away from the area.
The Russian refusal to allow foreign journalists to the area, combined with the security situation in the region being so dangerous that international embassies are warning families not to visit, means there is almost no outside scrutiny of the crash site, which is spread across about 50km of mainly farmland near Donetsk.
No permanent memorial has been established at the main debris field, although locals do hold annual memorial services nearby.
The Netherlands Ministry of Justice has developed protocols for returning personal items to next of kin.
A spokeswoman said there were agreements with contacts in the region around the crash site to ensure the repatriation of items.
“These items can be returned to the local authorities and will be transferred to (the) Netherlands for research/return to the next of kin,” she said.
Countries that lost citizens in the tragedy, including Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands, blamed Russia for shooting down the jet. The JIT said it had identified 100 persons of interest, although none have been named by authorities. Despite police investigations, no one has been charged, and Russia has indicated it will not assist with extraditions or help investigators access suspects.
Russia also used its veto in the United Nations Security Council to block establishment of an international war crimes tribunal. The Dutch plan to prosecute any suspects in a specially convened court in the Netherlands.