Malaysian Flight MH17

I have been following the news reports of the terrible disaster of MH17 with disbelief and horror.

Nearly three hundred innocent lives, including those of eighty children, were blotted out in a moment because of a conflict which was nothing to do with them. The stories which are coming out about the victims are unbearably tragic. The global fight against the scourge of AIDS has also taken a knock because irreplaceable experts on the disease who were on their way to a conference about it were among the dead.

Let us hope that the black box flight recorders whic were handed over to Malaysian investigators earlier this week have not been tampered with and that this handover marks the beginning of a move to sanity on all sides about the need to establish the truth about this ghastly crime and bring those responsible to justice.

I hope that both all airlines and all governments and military forces will also take action for improved protocols to reduce the risk of any such atrocity happening again.

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