Ukraine unable to provide safe passage to crash site

Ukraine unable to provide safe passage to crash site- Liow

KIEV: The Ukrainian government has told Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai that they cannot establish a safe corridor for the international investigation team to the crash site of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

The government also added that they could not guarantee their safety in and around the crash site.

Liow said the Ukrainian government has informed the Joint International Investigation Team that the crash site is under the full control of separatist groups, whose chain of command cannot be established.

The investigation team includes officials from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Britain and United States.

“The only international body that has so far managed to briefly access to the crash site is the OSCE,” Liow said in a press statement.

The issue of safety was discussed during a meeting with the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who is also the chair of the Ukaraininan Special Government Commission on MH17.

Also present were the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Maksym Burbak and the chairman of the Ukrainian State Aviation Administration Denys Antonyuk.

Following reports that separatist groups have custody of the black boxes, Liow stressed that evidence from the crash site should not be tampered with.

He said Malaysia is deeply concerned that the sanctity of the crash site has been severely compromised.

“It is imperative that international investigators and search and recovery personnel are afforded full and unhindered access to this site,” he said in the statement.

Malaysia also demanded that all human remains must be allowed to be recovered, identified and repatriated and called for an immediate and unrestricted access to the crash site.

Liow arrived in Kiev today at 1.10pm local time, accompanied by the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and Malaysia Airlines chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof.

A Malaysian team of 133 officials and experts, comprising of search and recovery personnel, forensics experts, technical and medical experts arrived in Kiev earlier on Saturday morning local time.

The MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Ukraine. It was carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew.

The aircraft had left Amsterdam at 12.15 pm (Netherlands time) Thursday and was to have arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 6.10 am (Malaysian time) Friday. - Astro Awani