Cover-up: Ukraine rebels destroying all links to MH17 air atrocity
UN demands full inquiry but armed Russian separatists block access to crash site amid confusion over black boxes
An image of what is believed to be a Buk missile battery in Torez, Ukraine. Photograph: EMPR/Barcroft Media
Russian separatist groups in eastern Ukraine
are hastily covering up all links to the Buk missile battery suspected
to have been used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane,
according to western-based defence and intelligence specialists.
As
the UN security council called for a "full, thorough independent
international investigation" into the downing of the plane, concern that
a cover-up was under way was fuelled by a standoff at part of the crash
site between observers from the Organisation for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and rebel gunmen, which ended with a warning shot being fired.
Postings
on rebel websites immediately after the crash boasted of having shot
down what they claimed was an Antonov Ukrainian military transport
plane, but these have been deleted.
The US ambassador to the UN,
Samantha Power, blamed a surface-to-air missile fired by rebels in
eastern Ukraine and hinted that they might have had Russian technical
help. The rebels are suspected of having used a Russian-built,
vehicle-mounted Buk missile system to bring down MH17, killing all 298
passengers and crew. Power called for the crash site to be preserved.
"All evidence must be undisturbed," she said. "Russia needs to help make this happen."
But
hopes are not high. The OSCE was trying to gain access to one part of
the large crash site but the commander of a rebel unit, known as
Commander Glum, blocked them. After the warning shot, the OSCE convoy
departed.
There is also confusion over the black boxes and other devices
apparently salvaged from the plane. A rebel military commander initially
said he was considering what to do with them, while another rebel
leader, Aleksandr Borodai, contradicting his colleague, said the rebels
had no black boxes or any other devices.
The Ukrainian interior
ministry added to fears of a cover-up when it released video purportedly
taken by police showing a truck carrying a Buk missile launcher with
one of its four missiles apparently missing, rolling towards the Russian
border at dawn . The video could not be independently verified.
Other
material on rebel social media sites was being deleted, including
pictures showing the alleged capture of Buk missile vehicles by rebels
from a Ukrainian air base last month.
Rebels said the boast on the
social media site on Thursday that a plane had been shot down was not
put up by them but by a sympathiser who mistakenly assumed it was a
Ukrainian military plane that had been shot down. But in a separate
posting a rebel leader also claimed that a plane had been brought down.
"We warned you – do not fly in our sky," he said. That too was removed.
A
Nato intelligence specialist quoted by the military analysts Janes said
the recordings "show that the Russian 'helpers' realise that they now
have an international incident on their hands – and they probably also
gave the order for separatists to erase all evidence – including those
internet postings. It will be interesting to see if we ever find this
Buk battery again or if someone now tries to dump it into a river."
Video
footage allegedly taken on Thursday appeared to support the idea that
pro-Russia separatists had been to blame. It showed a Buk battery
seemingly being moved in the rebel-held area between Snizhne and Torez
close to the crash site. A still picture allegedly shows a missile in
vertical launch mode beside a supermarket in Torez. However, the
location has still to be established.
Ukrainian intelligence has
published a tape said to be a recording between rebels and Russian
intelligence in which they realise there has been a catastrophic
blunder. One recording is said to be between a rebel commander, Igor
Bezler, and a Russian intelligence officer in which he says: "We have
just shot down a plane." A second recording from an unidentified source
puts the blame on Cossack militiamen.
Defence analysts with
Russian expertise shared Power's scepticism that Russia-backed rebel
groups would have had the expertise to fire the missile and suggested it
was more likely to have been Russian ground troops who specialise in
air defence, seconded to help the rebels.
At the Pentagon,
officials said a motive for the operation had yet to be determined, as
had the chain of command. One said it would be "surprising to us" if
pro-Russia separatists were able to operate the Buk missile battery
without Russian technical support. The Ukrainian military confirmed it
has Buk batteries but said it had none in the area the missile was
fired.
Nato had Awacs surveillance and command-and-control planes
flying in the Baltics around the time of the crash, but Pentagon
officials did not think the aircraft picked up indications of the
disaster.
Bob Latiff, a former US weapons developer for the air
force and the CIA and now a professor at Notre Dame University, said he
leaned towards a belief that it was a case of mistaken identity on the
part of those who pressed the button.
"A radar return from an
airplane like this would look very similar to that from a cargo plane,
as was initially claimed by the separatists. If radar was all they were
using, that is a shame," he said. "All airliners emit identification
signals which identify the aircraft and provide other information like
altitude and speed. They also operate on known communications
frequencies. It doesn't sound like the separatists were using any of
this.
"My guess is the system's radar saw a return from a big
'cargo' plane flying at 30,000 feet or so and either automatically
fired, or some aggressive, itchy operator fired, not wanting to miss an
opportunity."
Latiff said that if they had only one radar, as
Ukrainian officials suggest, it would have been pointed at the target. A
second, rotating one would normally have been part of a battery to pick
up other planes in the immediate vicinity, but he said even that would
not have established whether it was a commercial plane and there would
normally have been communications equipment to pick up signals showing
the plane was non-military.
Igor Sutyagin, a Russian military
specialist at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said he
regarded the tape recordings as genuine, as well as postings on social
media pointing the finger at pro-Russian separatists or Russia itself.
But
getting evidence would be very difficult. He said: "A decision has been
made on the Russian side to hide their tracks. It will be hard to find
the battery." Satellites might have been able to catch something, but
the trail from the missile would have been very short, Sutyagin said.
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