From the very beginning of this inquiry into the crash of Malaysian Flight MH17, the process has been highly politicized, Willy Wimmer, former vice president of the OSCE, told RT. Too many questions remain, he added.
Monday marks three years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was brought down over eastern Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew on board died.
The tragedy led to an international inquiry carried out by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising aviation experts and investigators from the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Malaysia, and Ukraine.
The investigation paid little attention to data provided by Russian authorities, which provided the information to understand how the crash happened.
Today, many questions remain unanswered regarding the crash, including the process of the investigation.
RT: It's been three years on since the MH17 tragedy. How hopeful are you that all questions into the terrible event will be answered?
Willy Wimmer: I think there is almost no hope to get answers to the bag of questions we have because of this tragic accident. We shouldn’t forget that within a few weeks a second Malaysian plane came down. The fate of those two planes is unsolved even today. This doesn’t fit into the experience of air accidents we have in Europe. I won’t mention other parts of the world. Remember, a few years ago we had this tragic accident with a German plane in the mountainous region in the southern part of France. Within days we knew what happened. When you look at the tragic events with these two Malaysian airplanes, nobody knows what happened. This is an uncertainty which makes it possible that those who died in the airspace of Ukraine died for a second time because there is no answer to the question why it happened; and they died for the second time because there is no proper investigation. That is a reality we face today.
RT: Your thoughts on the way the investigation is being carried out, considering how controversial this incident is?
WW: I think the standards of the investigations we have in Europe, and I won’t speak about others part of the world, is different. We know within hours, or within days, what happened and who was responsible. From the very beginning of this investigation, which is called investigation, we all have seen from our experience that it has been politicized from the very beginning.
The interesting thing, I live in the neighborhood of the Dutch border, and we like to go to the Netherlands. The Dutch are in these NATO surveillance planes, AWACS, and two of these planes, if I remember correctly, have been in the area where the accident happened in this part of Ukraine. Until now we’re not familiar with the experience of these two NATO planes, which made surveillance in this part of Ukraine. They must be familiar with all the events in this area, and the Dutch had been on these planes as well if I am correct. Nothing of these things have been explained to the public.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.