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Chinese envoy calls for focusing on truth establishment over MH17 air crash

Xinhua, July 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

The current focus should be on establishing the truth of the MH17 incident and seeking justice for the victims, said a Chinese envoy here Wednesday.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks at a Security Council meeting after Russia vetoed a draft Security Council resolution on the establishment of an international tribunal to investigate the downing of a Malaysian airliner last year.

Eleven of the Council's 15 members voted in favor, one against and three others, including China, abstained.

"China has participated in the consultations on the draft resolution and China has all along called on the members of the council to maintain unity, meet each other in the halfway, accommodate each other's concerns and avoid political confrontation," said Liu.

Liu said if the Security Council could have reached consensus on the next step to be taken concerning the crash of MH17, it would have been able to send out a positive signal that the international community were maintaining a common position on this issue.

"Under the circumstance where some members of the council still have major concerns on the draft resolution, to forcibly push for a vote will only result in the division among the member states of the Council," said Liu. "This will not help ease the grief of the bereaved families of the victims of the crash of MH17, and will not help establish the facts and bring the perpetrators to justice. "

A Malaysia Airlines plane was brought down on July 17, 2014 when it was flying over the war zone in east Ukraine while en route from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing all 298 people on board, 196 of whom were Dutch.

"That was a tragedy," said Liu. "China is deeply saddened by this tragedy and wishes to once again express its sympathies to the bereaved families of the victims and to the relevant countries. "

Noting that China supports, in accordance with the Security Council Resolution 2166, holding an objective, impartial and independent international investigation into the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice, Liu said "the current focus should be on establishing the truth of the incident and seeking justice for the victims."

Resolution 2166, which was unanimously adopted by the UN's most powerful body on July 21, 2014, expressed support for the " efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines" and called on all United Nations member states "to provide any requested assistance to civil and criminal investigations."

The draft resolution which the council failed to adopt Wednesday has proposed that a tribunal be established to investigate the incident with judges and prosecutor being appointed by the UN secretary-general. Endite