Malaysia’s Minister of Transport, Liow Tiong Lai, who introduced the draft resolution, expressed “disappointment” after the text was vetoed by Russian Federation. “The friends and families of the passengers aboard deserve justice”, she added. Russian Federation is confident that the veto vote it cast against the Malaysia-proposed resolution for an global criminal tribunal on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 will not affect relations between the two countries.
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Angola, China and Venezuela abstained.
He recalled that the Security Council had formerly made exceptions and initiated the establishment of tribunals in the cases of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, but “this experience can hardly be considered successful in view of their complexity, susceptibility to political pressure, high cost and excessive length of proceedings”.
The majority of those who died were Dutch, and almost 40 were Australian citizens or residents. They will no explore other options for prosecuting those responsible, both internationally and nationally.
“The results of the vote on the MH17 tribunal speak for themselves”, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s press secretary, Svyatoslav Tseholko, said.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the council that “no veto will stand in the way of this heinous crime being investigated and prosecuted”.
European Commission spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told reporters that “the work must continue so that those who are either directly or indirectly responsible for the downing of MH17 are, indeed, held accountable”. The probe is being led by The Netherlands because 196 of the victims were Dutch. That investigation’s conclusions are expected to be published in October. The plane is widely believed to have been shot down by pro-Russian militants using a BUK missile launcher supplied by Russia, though Russian media and officials have propounded a variety of other versions over the past year; most of which attempted to implicate Ukraine.
“What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of such an investigation?”
Russian United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was premature to set up an global tribunal.
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“It is a great let down that the resolution to establish an global criminal tribunal for MH17 was not adopted. This of course is regrettable”, Churkin said. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave.
