With the unfortunate downing of a Malaysia Airline passenger plane last week in Ukraine, the world is witnessing a further escalation of the crisis in that country. Given the number of lives lost in the crash – about 298 of them – and the broad spectrum of their nationalities, it is an action that has effectively internationalised the conflict, originally seen as pitting the government of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics member against its want-away, pro-Russian eastern section.
Flight MH17, which originated in Amsterdam, Holland, had over 190 Dutch nationals on board, including a world renowned HIV/AIDS researcher, Joep Lange, and his team of over 100 other researchers. They were bound for Kuala Lumpur, en route to the 20th International HIV/AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia; and their demise is already being considered a serious setback in the search for the elusive cure for the disease. The sense of loss to the global HIV/AIDS cause was aptly captured by another consultant, Trevor Stratton, who said, “The cure for AIDS may have been on that plane, we just don’t know.”
Other occupants of the ill-fated flight MH17 included 44 Malaysians, among them the 15 crew members; 27 Australians; 12 Indonesians; nine Britons; four Germans; four Belgians; three Filipinos and one each from the United States, Canada and Kiwi.
In a world that has increasingly been rendered unsafe by violence and natural disasters, this is another tragedy of gargantuan proportions. World leaders are still pondering what to make of the incident rightly described by the US President, Barack Obama, as “an outrage of unspeakable proportions.” To the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, who does not want to see it as fallout of the ongoing crisis in his country, it was an act of international terrorism, requiring collective efforts to fight.
As the world awaits, with bated breath, the outcome of investigations to unravel the mystery behind the crash, allegations are already flying back and forth; first, between the parties directly involved in the conflict, and, second, between Russia and the Ukrainian authorities. Preliminary evidence, however, suggests that the aircraft was shot down. Evidence from an intercepted telephone conversation actually suggests that the plane was brought down in error by the pro-Russian rebels within their self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic territory. They might have thought that it was a Ukrainian military plane, only to discover later that it was a passenger airline from a neutral country.
Before the airliner was downed, the rebels had reportedly shot down two other military aircraft within the week, making the airspace very dangerous for flight. But the Malaysia Airline Senior Vice-President, Europe, Huib Gorter, declared that the flight route had not only been certified safe by the authorities, it was also being used by other airlines. It was indeed a double blow to the airline whose plane had earlier vanished en route to China in March and is yet to be found.
Although the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was quick to blame Poroshenko for creating the situation and atmosphere leading to the incident, the general opinion overwhelmingly points at Russia as the chief culprit for equipping the rebels with weapons far beyond their capacity to handle responsibly. Ukraine’s Prime Minister, in a statement on his Facebook page, said, “At this stage, we have no doubts that the plane was shot down from the sky. The crash was caused by a surface-to-air missile launch, most probably, from a Russian-made Buk-M1 anti-aircraft system.”
The suspicion that Russia is behind the Ukrainian crisis is not totally misplaced. Since the people of Ukraine literally chased away their former president, Viktor Yanukovych, for overtly courting stronger ties with Russia in defiance of the people’s wish for greater affiliation with the European Union, Putin’s reaction has been that of open bullying and hostility. Apart from seizing Crimea from Ukraine’s control, Moscow has been fighting a proxy war by openly arming the Russian-speaking eastern part of the country that has stated its intention to join up with Russia.
While unconvincingly hinging the blame on Poroshenko for allegedly creating the atmosphere for the crisis, Putin conveniently ignored his own role as the arms provider and instigator, which is why it is rightly believed that, more than any other country, Russia holds the key to ending the crisis in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, while the US has taken the lead –through imposition of sanctions –to force Russia to behave responsibly and stop destabilising its neighbours, other Western nations, even the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members, have been temporising. The United Nations has also been rendered impotent, since any action taken by the global body can be rendered a nullity by Russia’s veto.
Perhaps one other reason why America is almost standing alone in the confrontation with Russia is the fact that Europe depends substantially on Russian oil and gas for survival. But a choice will have to be made by Europe to either allow Russia to continue to run amok or come up with collective sanctions that will sufficiently hurt the country and force it to behave responsibly.
