LONDON (AP) – The Rev. John Mosey has advice for relatives seeking justice for their loved ones who died aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17: Don’t expect your quest to carry much weight.
Mosey thought truth would prevail after he lost his teenage daughter Helga, who was a passenger on Pan Am Flight 103 when it exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, just before Christmas in 1988. But as months turned into years and then into decades, he concluded that geopolitical realities had trumped his family’s desire to know what really happened.
The British cleric from Lancaster says he thinks the truth about Lockerbie is still being hidden – and has told families who lost relatives when MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, over eastern Ukraine they can expect the same. In face-to-face informal counseling sessions at Lockerbie, Mosey has cautioned MH17 families that the interests of powerful countries like Russia and the United States over the area where the plane was brought down may well eclipse their desire for the straight story.
“We told them they need to really get together as a group, to strengthen each other emotionally and spiritually, and to get hold of a good independent lawyer,” Mosey said of his emotional sessions with MH17 families. “I’ve told them that I hope in their countries the politicians can’t control the legal system, which is what happened here (in Britain). That is what they’ll be up against.”
He’s also told them to try and forgive those responsible for the destruction of their families – not just because it’s in the Bible, but because you can get “eaten up” by bitterness and anger if you don’t.