Moscow has long history of arming rebels who shoot down airliners

2014/8/1 7:49:08

Commentary published by CNN points out that Moscow’s history of involvement with similar incidents is long – as is the list of those killed by Moscow-armed rebels.

 

< Photo: This scene from the MH17 disaster is just one of many that had direct ties to Moscow.

 


In the commentary below, an expert points out that what happened in Ukraine is not the first time that Moscow’s support for rebels has led to disaster:

 

 

By Mark Kramer* for CNN:

 

[…]

 

But even if the downing of the airliner had been deliberate, it would not have been unprecedented. Indeed, on numerous occasions, insurgents armed by Moscow have deliberately shot down civilian planes.

 

In September 1978, guerrillas from the Zimbabwean People's Revolutionary Army shot down an Air Rhodesia passenger airliner using a Soviet-supplied SA-7 shoulder-fired SAM. Dozens were killed in the crash, but 56 passengers survived. The guerrillas methodically hunted down the survivors and killed them (though a small number evaded death by hiding).

 

Five months later, in February 1979, Zimbabwean guerrillas once again used a Soviet-supplied SA-7 to shoot down an Air Rhodesia passenger aircraft. All the passengers and crew died in the crash. In December 1988, Polisario Front guerrillas in Morocco used Soviet-supplied missiles to attack two U.S. DC-7 civilian aircraft that were spreading insecticide against a locust infestation. One of the planes crashed, killing all five Americans on board.

 

After the Soviet Union broke apart, the new government in Moscow continued to arm and train insurgent forces, focusing on other former Soviet republics. On three consecutive days in September 1993, Russian-backed separatist guerrillas in the Abkhazian region of Georgia deliberately attacked Transair Georgian Airways passenger flights, using Russian-supplied shoulder-held SA-7s against two of them in flight and artillery against the third during boarding. A total of 136 people were killed in the three incidents.

 

For the complete text of the commentary and a large MH17 photo gallery, link below:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/23/opi ... ine-shoot-down/index.html

 

*Editor's note: Mark Kramer is director of the Cold War Studies Program at Harvard University and Senior Fellow of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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