BERLIN: As international investigators head to rebel-held eastern Ukraine to piece together what — and who — caused a Malaysian airliner to plunge into the steppe, securing evidence in the middle of a war zone is a major challenge.

Proving what happened beyond doubt and to the satisfaction of the warring parties may already be all but impossible, after local people and rebel fighters have spent 24 hours sifting and moving debris and bodies and Ukraine and Russia make detailed allegations against each other and argue over the black boxes.

In principle, all sides support a call, backed by Russia and other world powers in the UN Security Council, for an impartial international investigation. But even agreeing the Kiev government has jurisdiction in a region where separatists have declared their own republic poses difficulties.

“It is a national competence, and that is part of the problem in this case,” said Roland Bless, spokesman for the Swiss chair of Europe’s OSCE security body, referring to rebel claims to sovereignty in the eastern region of Donetsk.

The OSCE said some of its staff had visited the impact site on Friday, a day after the aircraft was lost with 298 aboard.

Separatists have said they have recovered both flight recorders from the Boeing 777 and are willing to cooperate, including by holding a ceasefire. But officials in Kiev accused them of trying to spirit the black boxes, and a missile launcher they used to shoot it down, across the nearby Russian border.

US points to Ukraine separatists in downed jet tragedy

Russia, which under normal circumstances would have no obvious stake in the air accident investigation of a US-made Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, has said it does not intend to take the recorders.

In a typical crash inquiry, it is up to Ukraine, on whose territory the plane came down, to secure the area and recover the flight data and cockpit voice recordings and liaise with the manufacturer to ensure their contents are downloaded correctly.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has already spoken to other world leaders about the running of an international investigation, which could allay some of the rivalries.

“It’s very important that unbiased international experts will be the first persons who get access to the black boxes,” said Ukraine’s UN ambassador in Geneva, Yurii Klymenko.

“The issue is who will ... open the boxes? We would like to have the true information, not the fake one.”

The United Nations air safety arm, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, said it has made an offer to Ukraine to put together a team of international investigators.

If, as Ukraine alleges, MH17 was hit by an SA-11 missile, there is a good chance the pilots did not see it coming, leaving little or no informative trace on the cockpit voice recording.

The wreckage might show traces of explosives that could indicate the blast of a warhead. Somewhere in the debris strewn for miles across the steppe might be remnants of a missile. But finding them will be hard and proving their provenance after the confusion and mutual accusations of the first day will be tough.

Diplomats in the United Nations Security Council stood for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the disaster.

A joint statement called for “a full, thorough and independent international investigation... in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines and for appropriate accountability.”

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2014