Malaysia’s Risky Talks With Rebels in Ukraine Paid Off

By admin-s On Jul 24, 2014

(WSJ) – “The prime minister was really aware that there were risks. People could blame him for negotiating with terrorists.”

As attempts to retrieve the bodies and flight recorders from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 dragged on over the weekend, Prime Minister Najib Razak risked a gambit that European leaders wouldn’t: sending officials into a war zone to meet with armed rebels whose government almost no one recognizes.

After a nervy journey through checkpoints that dot eastern Ukraine’s conflict zone, the team met separatist leaders in their stronghold of Donetsk, who handed over the flight recorders—known as black boxes—and released the bodies for repatriation via Ukrainian government-held territory.

While European governments wrestled with how to get to the site without legitimizing the rebels or risking security, Mr. Najib put aside diplomatic protocol and safety fears and sent his team.

“What was key to him was the outcome,” said a person close to the prime minister’s office. “He was looking at people who controlled an area of land. And on that land was our plane, our bodies, our black boxes.”

The mission’s success delivered a political victory for Mr. Najib’s government, still reeling from its missteps after the disappearance of another Malaysia Airlines flight in March with 239 aboard.

But it also handed a gift to the rebels in the form of an accord, signed by the top Malaysian official present in Donetsk, calling the crash site “the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.” That offered a level of apparent recognition that even the rebels’ main backer—Russia—has avoided.

“It’s a tragic occasion, but we’ve proven we can be a subject of an intergovernmental agreement,” said Sergei Kavtaradze, an aide to rebel leader Alexander Borodai.

That recognition could antagonize Kiev and Washington, which have striven not to give any credibility to the rebels, whose main leaders are Russian citizens with few ties to the area.