Russian Federation likely to veto UN vote on MH17

The vote on the proposal by Malaysia, Australia, the Netherlands and Ukraine to create an global tribunal is set for Wednesday afternoon. Russian Federation proposed a rival text last week that demands justice but does not establish a tribunal.

“We consider the issue of establishing an worldwide tribunal to be premature and counterproductive”, Yermolov told the media yesterday. Malaysia has circulated a draft resolution requiring all countries to co-operate with the special tribunal or face sanctions, and called for a vote next Wednesday.

Yermolov said it was important to resolve differences between the two drafts in order to prevent a split within the UNSC and claimed that Malaysian representatives, in closed-door briefings on the issue, had expressed a similar willingness to explore other options besides setting up a tribunal. Vorobyeva in January, declined to divulge what the approaches were and said they were “confidential”.

FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop will personally push for the United Nations Security Council to establish an worldwide criminal tribunal on the downing of flight MH17 12 months ago.

Reuters said several security council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expect Russian Federation to veto the resolution.

“This is not a proper thing for the Security Council to do because it’s not a case of a threat to global peace and security”, he said in a telephone interview.

He said the lack of transparency from the investigation team, citing the Ukrainian air controller’s recording on the day of the incident, which was not presented to Russian Federation, as an example.

“We also asked the United States to present satellite pictures as we know that they are monitoring the area, but we got nothing”, he said.

All 298 passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 were killed when it was shot down in July 2014 in Ukrainian territory held by Russian-backed separatists.

The Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur, crashed in east of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the armed resistance zone, on July 17, 2014. But Moscow has rejected accusations it supplied the rebels with SA-11 Buk anti-aircraft missile systems.

It is learnt that the resolution, initially scheduled to be tabled on Wednesday, was being re-worked due to the Kremlin’s resistance.

When asked, Yermolov said the common ground should follow UNSC Resolution 2166, without elaborating further.