Malaysia cannot easily accept some of JIT findings on MH17 - PM Mahathir

From Mohd Iswandi Kasan Anuar

VLADIVOSTOK (Russia), Sept 5 -- Malaysia has doubts and cannot easily accept some of the findings of the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) pertaining to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahahthir Mohamad.

He said there is a need to have a neutral body which includes experts from many countries who are familiar with that kind of crashes to investigate it, as JIT’s view might not be fair and neutral.

“Their views may not be fair and neutral, we need to have a neutral body to investigate. And the findings are also something that we cannot easily accept.

“Identifying the missile, yes. The area where it happened, that can be verified, but identifying the actual firing, by whom (it was performed) that would be very difficult in the usual circumstances,” he said in an interview with the Sputnik news agency based in Moscow, Russia.

Dr Mahathir is in Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

Elaborating, the prime minister said he was not doubting the JIT’s truthfulness, but certain claims made by the team were not so easy to be accepted, particularly in identifying the people who actually fired the missile.

“It’s very difficult for anybody to determine (who fired the missile) because once the missile is fired, they can move to other places.

“You can identify parts of the missile, determine what kind of missile or which part of the plane is damaged, but to say that you know who fired the missile, that is a little bit too much for us to accept.

“I don’t have any relatives who were killed there, I don’t have any right to any insurance claim but I am seeing this as an observer from the outside and some of the findings made (by JIT) did not sound to me and many people in Malaysia as being quite right,” he said.

It was on July 17, 2014, that the aircraft with 298 people onboard from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Donetsk, Ukraine.

The JIT had concluded that MH17 was downed by a BUK anti-aircraft missile fired by pro-Russian separatists in their conflict against Ukraine.

In June this year, the JIT, consisting of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, announced that four individuals comprising three Russians - Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Oleg Pulatov - and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, would be charged with the downing of MH17.

Dr Mahathir said it was important to find other evidence pointing out to the culprit and the country which was involved in the firing of the missile.

“If they can discover from other evidence then that would be legitimate and I think the relatives of the victims would be able to make their claims,” he added.

-- BERNAMA