Russia Vetoed A Resolution To Establish An Int'l Tribunal To Investigate MH17

At a Security Council session today, Russia vetoed a resolution to establish an international tribunal to prosecute the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 passengers, over eastern Ukraine one year ago.

The session of the Council started with the minute of silence to honour the 298 victims of the crash of the flight MH17.

With eleven votes in favour, one against and three (China, Angola and Venezuela) abstentions, the Council turned down the resolution to form an ad-hoc international criminal tribunal to assure those responsible for the crash are brought to justice.

Speaking after the vote, Malaysian Minister of transport Liow Tiong Lai, said "We are deeply disappointed at the failure to adopt the draft resolution."

Lai also said the international criminal tribunal "was the best way for insuring the cooperation of all nations for an effective persecution mechanism to insure justice and accountability."

The Russian Federation, one of the five permanent members of the Council, along with the United Kingdom, China, France and the United States, has veto power over any resolution.

In explaining his vote, Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin stated "we have repeatedly stated that we do not back the idea of creation of this tribunal under the Chapter 7 of the UN. There are no grounds for this mindful of the fact that the Security Council in its resolution 2166 did not classified the Boing tragedy as a threat to international peace and security."

Speaking also at the Council, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN said, "by vetoing this resolution, Russia has tried to deny justice to the 298 victims on that plane.

Power added in "Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations, the appeals of the families affected."

Foreign Ministers of Netherland, New Zealand, Australia and Ukraine also participated to this session of the Security Council.

                



STORY: UN / MALAYSIA MH17
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /RUSSIAN /NATS
DATELINE: 29 JULY 2015, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

RECENT

1. Wide shot, exterior of UNHQ

29 JULY 2015, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Zoom out, delegates standing up
4. Pan right, minute of silence
5. Wide shot, delegates seating
6. Med shot, president raising hand
7. Pan left, Council voting
8. UPSOUND (English) Murray McCurry, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the Security Council:
"Those against?"
9. Med shot, Russian representative raising hand
10. Wide shot, meeting room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of transport of Malaysia:
"We are deeply disappointed at the failure to adopt the draft resolution to establish an ad-hoc international criminal tribunal for MH17 despite our persistent efforts to address Council members' concerns and to breach our differences.
12. Med shot, Russian representative
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Liow Tiong Lai, Minister of transport of Malaysia:
"Malaysia together with the countries participating in the joint investigation team had wanted to pursue this option since it would have generated broad international support for the persecution process. It was also the best way for insuring the cooperation of all nations for an effective persecution mechanism to ensure justice and accountability.
14. Cutaway, delegates
15. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
"We have repeatedly stated that we do not back the idea of creation of this tribunal under the Chapter 7 of the UN. There are no grounds for this mindful of the fact that the Security Council in its resolution 2166 did not classified the Boing tragedy as a threat to international peace and security."
16. Zoom in, delegates
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
"By vetoing this resolution, Russia has tried to deny justice to the 298 victims on that plane, and deny their families a chance to hold accountable those responsible. Russia has callously disregarded the public outcry in the grieving nations, the appeals of the families affected."
18. Wide shot, meeting room
DURATION: 02:39