The Russian veto came despite 11 nations voting to establish the tribunal and just three nations, including China, abstaining during the vote of the 15 member Security Council. ‘The Netherlands will not rest until all the facts are known and justice has had its day.’.
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Wisma Putra said it was deeply disappointed that the move was quashed denying both justice and accountability to the victims and perpetrators respectively.
After the Russian veto, Mr Liow said the “Council is now taking a step back and sending the wrong message to the victims’ families and loved ones… the council has failed”.
“The veto only compounds the atrocity”, Bishop said.
He said an ad hoc global criminal tribunal would “send a clear message to the growing number of non-state actors with the ability to target aircraft that such action is unacceptable”. “They will not be allowed to evade justice”.
She pledged to the families and friends of the victims that “Australia will continue to do everything we can to ensure the perpetrators of this barbaric act are held to account”.
“It was also stressed that many questions still remain to the investigation, including to collect evidence and to denying Russia access to significant part in the process [of the investigation]”, the Russian news agency Tass reported, quoting the Kremlin press service.
“In order to avoid the risk of politicizing justice, it is best to set up the tribunal before deciding what the circumstances of the crash were”, the Dutch government said. “If you are afraid of truth you are definitely on the wrong side”.
“Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations”, said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN. A resolution needs 9 votes in favor to be adopted and no veto by any of the five permanent memers – Britain, China, France, Russian Federation and the U.S. The move was backed by the Netherlands – which had 196 nationals on board – Ukraine, Belgium and Australia.
Rutte’s office said he telephoned Putin ahead of the vote in New York to seek his backing for setting up an worldwide tribunal to try the as-yet unidentified suspects behind the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet that killed 298 people in July of a year ago.
The lobbying efforts by the JIT investigating the shooting down of MH17 under UN resolution 2166 had gone right down to the wire.
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Earlier in the day, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made an “urgent” appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin not to veto the resolution.
