5 August 2014

FLIGHT MH17 - NATO exerting pressure, not interested in MH17 investigation – Russia’s mission






Published time: August 04, 2014 03:36
Edited time: August 04, 2014 04:12


A part of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at the crash site in the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), some 80km east of Donetsk, on August 2, 2014 (AFP Photo / Bulent Kilic)
A part of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at the crash site in the village of Hrabove (Grabovo), some 80km east of Donetsk, on August 2, 2014 (AFP Photo / Bulent Kilic)

Without waiting for MH17 crash investigators’ conclusions, NATO chief is eager to blame anti-Kiev forces, thus “exerting pressure” on the international team while providing no evidence to back the claims, Russia’s mission to NATO said.

The Russian mission to NATO has said that the bloc's Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen “decided not to wait until the end of #MH17 investigation” to blame the anti-Kiev forces for shooting down the plane, referring to Rasmussen's comments in Sunday's interview with the French Midi Libre.

The mission also wondered why “NATO is not interested in impartial MH17 investigation?” adding that “if the Alliance had evidence – why did it keep silent?”

In Sunday's interview, Rasmussen stated that NATO has “a lot of information that indicate the separatists, supported by the Russians, are guilty [of MH17 tragedy]”, calling it a “war crime” the perpetrators of which “must be brought to justice as soon as possible.”


NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AFP Photo)
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AFP Photo)


Although he admitted the necessity of a “full independent international inquiry to establish the facts,”Rasmussen did not seem to be willing to wait for the conclusions of the international investigation team working in Eastern Ukraine at the crash site.

NATO's chief did not provide the French media with any evidence, and when RIA Novosti reached out for the comment, NATO replied that they “do not comment on the course of the investigation.” In fact, NATO told RIA earlier that the organization is not participating in the international investigation effort, indicating that secret“evidence” may never be shared even with the investigators.

The Russian Ministry of Defense on the contrary held a substantial press conference several days after the crash, presenting some of the data of recorded by radars and satellites, and urging all parties rightly committed to a thorough investigation to do the same. Kiev at the same time seized all the records from its air-control tower, and has still not released them, two weeks after the tragedy.

During the course of the interview, Rasmussen repeatedly accused anti-Kiev forces of not allowing the international investigation's team to approach the crash site, calling it a “problem and a challenge.”

“Why do separatists not provide access to the crash site? There is something to hide,” he said, repeating that remark again when asked for any proof to back his claims.

However, the international team of over 100 Australian and Dutch experts, accompanied by OSCE monitors, were working at the crash site for a third consecutive day on Sunday. The OSCE highlighted earlier that the convoy “comprised 25 vehicles, including a bus and two mobile ambulances” went “smoothly and was well organized.”

The ceasefire around the disaster area, promised by Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, has repeatedly been broken over the last two weeks, with Kiev forces shelling the areas immediately adjacent to the crash site. Meanwhile, Kiev official’s aspiration to “cleanse of the militias and take control of this territory,” Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin says, could indicate that it is Kiev who wants to destroy implicating evidence.

Source: http://rt.com/news

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