10 YEARS ON: BERNAMA PERSONNEL RECOUNT COVERAGE OF MH17 TRAGEDY IN KIEV

By Mohd Firdaus Md Saisi

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- A decade has passed, yet for two media personnel from the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) who covered the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 tragedy, the experience remains indelibly etched in their memories.

The Malaysian aircraft was shot down over eastern Ukraine while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.

Reflecting on the world-shocking tragedy, Bernama.com editor Mohd Razman Abdullah, who was the Crime Desk head at the time, said that on July 18, 2014, he represented Bernama to go to Kiev, Ukraine, together with the investigation team established by the Malaysian government to probe the tragedy.

He recounted that he and Bernama photographer Zulkarnain Kamaruddin, along with 131 personnel comprising the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) and police forensic officers, arrived in Kiev the day after and were housed in a hotel under tight security by the local forces.

“Ukraine was in a state of conflict due to the ongoing war with rebel troops. Even though the active war zone was in the east, the entire country was on high alert, and the investigation team members were not permitted to leave the hotel at will.

“In fact, we weren’t allowed to take our cameras outside the hotel,” he said.

He further said that the safety of the investigation team at the hotel was even more at risk after they successfully obtained the two black boxes from the ill-fated aircraft, handed over by separatist leader Alexander Borodai in Donetsk, the location where the plane was shot down.

Mohd Razman said that some team members had to travel to Donetsk, about 700 kilometres from Kiev, to negotiate for the black boxes and the victims’ remains.

“To confuse those attempting to seize the black boxes, all team members involved in the negotiations wore similar clothing and carried identical bags. From that day on, we were always on high alert, feeling as though our every move was being watched,” he said.

Despite spending about a week in Ukraine, Mohd Razman said he could not set foot at the scene as it was controlled by rebel groups and remained an active war zone.

“Only police forensic officers and SMART members had access to the site, and all information was then relayed to the media team by the investigation team leader, Khairil Hilmi Mokhtar,” he said.

Mohd Razman said he felt privileged to cover the tragedy, describing it as a significant part of the nation’s history and an invaluable experience for him as a journalist, as it was the first time a local airplane was shot down abroad.

“The fact that the country (Ukraine) was in the midst of a war crisis made it more challenging to write a balanced report without offending any party, as it could complicate the investigation team’s tasks or, worse, endanger their lives,” he said.

Meanwhile, for Zulkarnain, witnessing the Dutch people lining up for over 100 kilometres to honour the arrival of the MH17 victims’ remains at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam is an experience he will never forget.

He said that although they had no familial ties with the victims, they showed solidarity by lining the route from Hilversum to Amsterdam as the bodies were transported from Ukraine.

“Everything there seemed to come to a halt at that moment. All vehicles and people stopped and did not move as the convoy carrying the victims passed,” he said.

Flight MH17 was shot down by a missile while flying over conflict-hit eastern Ukraine, tragically claiming the lives of all 298 passengers and crew, including 80 children.

The victims were from 17 countries, including 198 Dutch nationals, 43 Malaysians, 38 Australians, and 10 from the United Kingdom.

On Nov 17, 2022, the Hague District Court sentenced two Russians and a Ukrainian to life imprisonment in absentia after finding them guilty on charges of causing the downing of Flight MH17 and the deaths of all 298 people on board.

They are Russians Igor Girkin and Sergei Dubinsky and Ukrainian citizen Leonid Kharchenko, who were also ordered to pay more than 16 million euros in compensation to relatives of the victims. However, the court acquitted another Russian, Oleg Pulatov, of the same charges.

In its judgement, the court said it has no doubt whatsoever that the MH17 was hit by a Buk missile fired from a field in eastern Ukraine.

“This is clear from photographs of a smoke trail in the sky, statements by a protected witness, satellite images, intercepted telephone conversations and transmission mast data, photographs and videos of a Buk TELAR being brought in and removed, and examination of fragments in the remains of a crew member and in the truss and the groove of the aircraft,” according to the judgement.

-- BERNAMA