MH17: Stop this madness
This is unbelievable and unacceptable. There is simply no respect for the dead. Being civilised means that one respects the dead and tries to give them a decent burial.
But these guys involved in a conflict in Ukraine are simply not making it possible for that to happen; they are delaying the process of burial of those who died in the MH17 tragedy.
How can anyone be so cold-hearted? Families are suffering because they have lost their loved ones and now they have to suffer even more because they are unable to give those who have died a decent funeral.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said it well: "Their lives have been claimed by violence, and now violence is also the main obstacle for these victims to be accorded the final respects.”
What is happening to people?
I would have thought that the downing of MH17 by a missile of some sort – Ukrainian authorities and the US say it is a surface-to-air missile – and the loss of 298 lives would have shocked the combatants in the civil war in Ukraine to stand down at least for a while.
The plane crashed into territory held by Russian-backed separatists who are fighting the government in Kiev.
I would have thought that both sides would put aside their enmity at least for a few days to allow the bodies to be recovered and sent home to their families.
But that is not is happening. They are still fighting.
On top of that, I read about how badly the bodies are being treated. I have seen pictures of villagers walking all over the crash site, some taking pictures. Don’t the separatists know that the site of such a disaster should be secured so that experts can carry out investigations?
The world will want to know what exactly happened. The families and friends of those who died have a right to know what happened. Was the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down by mistake? If so, who did it?
Ukraine and the US, and some Western nations, based on evidence such as conversations between supposed separatists and Russian officials, claim that the separatists had shot down the plane.
Russia and the separatists claim that it was the work of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The 298 people who died are victims of a civil war that has nothing to do with any of them. They were on Flight MH17 en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17.
They hail from 11 nations, with the majority of the dead being Dutch. At last count, the dead included 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians (including 15 crew members), 28 Australians and several permanent residents, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, one New Zealander and one Canadian.
Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia too are victims in this conflict.
The separatists initially did not allow independent investigators into the area. Why are they so slow to allow investigators into the area? Why are they so reluctant to hand over the bodies of the dead? Reports said the bodies had been lying spread over fields for at least two days.
Then, the bodies were all collected and placed in piles before being put in four refrigerated rail carriages. But the separatists are not handing over the bodies just yet.
Is this any way to treat the dead? Has the civil war turned these people into unfeeling monsters?
Reporters on the scene have filed reports about how grim and undignified the scene was, with swarms of flies buzzing around the train.
There are reports that the corpses might be used as a bargaining chip. One report in a Ukrainian paper said the separatists said they would only hand over the bodies if the Ukrainian government agreed to a truce.
Oh God. This is not right at all. This is inhumane.This is madness.
And, reports say, investigators have only been given limited access to the crash site – more than three days after the tragedy.
I hope the Malaysian government will press all those involved in the conflict – the Ukrainian authorities, the separatists and Russia – to act fast. Russia can speed up the matter as the separatists listen to it, but it seems to be dragging its feet too. The Malaysian government should immediately send a senior minister to Moscow to talk some sense into them.
I just pray that good sense will prevail and that the separatists and the Ukrainian government will work together to send the bodies of the dead to their families as soon as possible.
The dead should be given a decent burial, and families should have resolution.
