KUALA LUMPUR: While still in the honeymoon period and with his wife six months pregnant, Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh was offered to be a translator for the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash investigation team that went to Ukraine 10 years ago.
His fluency in Russian enabled the Merlimau state assemblyman, who was a paediatrician newly stationed at Ampang Hospital at the time, to become the youngest member of the MH17 investigation team at the age of 26.
“I still remember being contacted by the then Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek. He asked me to help as an interpreter because I had studied in Moscow for six years, so there was no problem for me to communicate in the language.
“It was supposed to be the time for me to celebrate Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri for the first time with my wife, but I sacrificed it to serve the country, and I have never regretted it to this day,“ he said when contacted by Bernama.
Despite the heavy heart of leaving his beloved wife, Dr Fatin Nadirah Idrus, the Russian State Medical University graduate said that duty and responsibility came above all else, even though he had to be away for three weeks to join the mission.
Dr Muhamad Akmal said he was aware that the role of a translator was crucial and that any mistake in translating messages could hinder negotiations or communication.
“No matter how great an individual is, if they cannot communicate well with authorities or locals, it makes things difficult. I have the advantage of knowing Russian and understanding their culture, making it easier for them to cooperate,“ he said.
Recalling his duties, he said that besides assisting media practitioners with translation, he also helped the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) in communicating with mosque management in Ukraine to handle the remains of victims.
“At that time, the idea of bringing all the bodies to the Netherlands had not come up yet. The initial plan was to handle everything in Ukraine and then send them back to Malaysia,“ he said, adding that he was also tasked with assisting Malaysian medical officers in taking care of the health of the MH17 investigation team.
He said the most challenging part was when they couldn’t determine the final stop of the train departing from Donetsk, which was carrying the remains of MH17 victims, causing him to feel stressed and worried that the mission to bring back the remains might not succeed.
“The bodies from the crash site in Donetsk, a war zone, were wrapped in plastic and placed in train carriages from Donetsk to Kharkiv, which is at the border of the war zone.
“They sent the bodies by train but didn’t specify where the train would stop. So, it was our job to identify the train station. We asked the police, and they said they didn’t know. We asked others, and they also said they didn’t know. This was the most challenging part.
“Eventually we found out the actual location of the train; it went straight to a warehouse in Kharkiv, a bit far from the city. In that warehouse, the management of the remains took place. They scanned the remains to ensure there were no explosives and then the bodies were flown to the Netherlands,“ he said.
Even though a decade has passed, when asked about the thing he could not forget during the mission, Dr Muhamad Akmal took a deep breath.
“The condition of the bodies, I can’t describe it. When I saw it with my own eyes and opened it myself, that’s something I can’t forget to this day,“ he said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border on July 17, 2014, when it was shot down by a missile while flying over a conflict area, killing all 298 people, including 43 Malaysians, on board.
