Malaysian premier expects full access to Boeing crash site
BEIJING. Nov 10 (Interfax) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak insists on access to the Malaysian Boeing's crash site in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.
"We hope that both [conflicting] sides will provide a free and full access to the crash site. Regrettably, this has not been done so far. Malaysia does not represent any interested party to the geopolitical conflict developing in that region. It has fallen victim to regional events," he said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing.
The prime minister said he expected assistance of Russia. "Hopefully, you will help us find out what happened to the airplane," he said.
"We have always had a good relationship with Russia and we are expecting your assistance and support to our attempt to understand what has actually happened to the airplane," the premier continued.
He stressed that Malaysia "had always held an impartial position." "Instead of making sweeping accusations, we are waiting for a final report on the causes of this tragedy and the investigation of its consequences," Najib said.
"Conclusions drawn in the tentative report indicated that it was not a catastrophe, a tragedy or an accident but the plane came down under an impact from large quantities of high energy objects. We have additional work to do to determine the nature of these objects, the territory where they were launched from, and the culprits behind this event. In order to do so, we need full access to the crash site. We need to analyze the debris and to assess the nature of the high-energy objects, which may have left traces on the fuselage and other parts of the plane," the Malaysian prime minister said.
Judging by the data from the black boxes, the plane was in good order and all flight parameters had been observed. Besides, it had highly professional pilots, he noted.
The prime minister regretted that "Malaysia had lost two planes within four months."
"We hope for active cooperation with all countries of the region and, most importantly, access to the crash site, therefore the ceasefire will be an important condition of the crash site's accessibility. We also hope that both sides will honor the truce. The truce which has been made is being neglected by both parties. Here is where we stand right now: we have more questions than answers," he said.
The prime minister thanked Putin for his condolences.
The Russian president told the Malaysian prime minister earlier on Monday that Russia, the same as Malaysia, insisted on an unbiased and complete investigation of the Boeing crash in Donbas in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution and said that the claims of the alleged militia control over the crash site were groundless.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17. The crash killed all 298 people on board.
A tentative report of the Dutch Safety Board said the plane was in good order but it disintegrated in midair after its fuselage had been hit by a large quantity of objects.