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MH17 Tribunal "key deciding point" for UN Security Council resolution: council President

Xinhua, July 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Members of the UN Security Council are yet to reach an agreement on whether an international tribunal should be established to try those allegedly responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, Gerard van Bohemen, New Zealand's ambassador to the UN, told reporters here Monday.

New Zealand is holding the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of July.

"I noted -- and so did the Russian Federation -- that the commission of a tribunal is the key deciding point," van Bohemen said after a closed council meeting.

Van Bohemen, who spoke to reporters in his capacity of the council president, said that the council's discussions about Ukraine and MH17 Monday had been "very positive" but that the tribunal remained the main sticking point.

"There was strong support in the room for the establishment of a tribunal," he said. "Russia, of course, has a different perspective on this."

Van Bohemen was referring to two different draft resolutions, one put forward by Malaysia, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ukraine in support of a tribunal, and an alternative put forward by Russia, one of the five permanent council members who have veto power on the 15-nation council.

According to the rotating council president, there are hopes that a unified approach will be reached. "There were a number of countries that urged the two key proponents to come together and try to find a united way forward," he said, adding that a date to vote on the resolution had not yet been set.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board while flying over East Ukraine, an area which has been experiencing conflict since March 2014.

The Security Council voted unanimously on July 21, 2014 to establish an independent international investigation to establish the cause of the crash -- the results of the investigation are expected to be known in early October 2015. The tribunal has been proposed as a means to try the parties found responsible for the flight's downing.

In a statement issued Friday, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general acknowledged the importance of the investigation into the cause of the crash.

"While the pain caused by this tragedy cannot be erased, the victims must be honored by a collective effort to ascertain the truth about the incident and ensure that any persons determined responsible will be held to account," the spokesman said. Endite