Roundup: Bid blocked at UN to send Malaysian Airlines jet downing to int'l tribunal

Russia on Wednesday vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution which intended to establish an international tribunal for bringing to justice those responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight over Ukraine one year ago.

The vote was 11-1, with abstentions by Angola, China and Venezuela.

All 298 people on board the jetliner were killed on July 17, 2014 when it apparently was shot down while flying from Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, over eastern Ukraine where separatists, allegedly supported by Russia, fought Kiev-backed troops.

Liow Tiong Lai, transport minister for Malaysia, a non- permanent member of the council and sponsor of the draft, said, " We are deeply disappointed at the failure to adopt the draft resolution to establish an ad hoc criminal international tribunal for MH17."

"Malaysia, together with the countries participating in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), had wanted to pursue this option since it would have generated broad international support for the prosecution process," he said. "It was also the best way for insuring the cooperation of all nations for an effective prosecution mechanism to insure justice and accountability."

"Unfortunately .. the council is now taking a step back by sending the wrong signal to the victims' families and loved ones," Lai said.

"Instead of conveying a message in support of justice and accountability, we are sending dangerous message of impunity for the perpetrator of this heinous crime as well as jeopardizing the safety of civil aviation over conflict zones in the future," the Malaysian envoy said. "I wish to stress that Malaysia will not be deterred by today's unfortunate event."

Ambassador Liu Jieyi of China, said his nation supports Security Council resolution 2166, "holding an objective, impartial and independent international investigation into the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice."

He was referring to the council resolution approved last year that condemned the disaster, called on all parties involved to facilitate recovery and repatriation and demanding those responsible be held to account.

"The current focus should be on establishing the truth of the incident and seeking justice for the victims," he 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 was maintaining a common position on this issue."

Foreign Minister Bert Koenders of the Netherlands explained that his nation, which suffered the loss of 196 Dutch citizens, took responsibility for identifying and repatriating remains.

"On behalf of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and Ukraine, Malaysia presented to the Council a thorough and carefully drafted proposal for an international criminal tribunal, to be established under Chapter 7," of the UN Charter, he said. "Our purpose remains to create a timely, depoliticized and credible mechanism to ensure that the perpetrators face justice and are held to account."

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia said almost immediately after the vote that in the draft there was a lack of guarantee of impartiality, that suspects already had been named even before investigations were complete and there was no guarantee such a tribunal would be free of political pressure.

There were accusations the separatists or even possibly members of Russia's military mistakenly fired at the commercial airliner.

"This tragedy of the Malaysian airliner is something terrible, not only for the countries and the citizens who died in this catastrophe, but it is also a trial for the diplomats who are forced to deal with this; it's also for the politicians of the relevant countries, the experts, the specialists who are working on this and continue to work on this," Churkin later said in the council, after representatives of more than two dozen countries explained their positions.

"This is a path on which we need to travel together," he said. "Unfortunately today's meeting was most unlikely to promote this joint movement towards the final objective to shed light on all the circumstances regarding this tragedy and bring those responsible to justice."

"Russia is ready to resume this work with experts and at any other level, so, let's from tomorrow move forward with this type of work," the Moscow envoy said.

Ministers from Australia and New Zealand and Ukraine also participated in the session. Endite