Brussels, 30/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 July, the European Union said that it very much regretted that the UN Security Council did not adopt - “due to the veto by Russia” - the resolution on the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 on 17 July 2014 in the east of Ukraine, which led to the death of 298 people.
Out of the 15 members of the Security Council, 11 voted in favour of the resolution submitted by Malaysia, whilst China, Venezuela and Angola abstained and Russia applied its veto.
During a press briefing, Maja Kocijancic, the spokesperson for the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, asserted that “regardless of this setback, the work must continue so that those directly or indirectly responsible for the downing of MH17 are indeed held accountable”. She urged all the different parties to cooperate with the enquiry and the legal proceedings.
She regretted the fact that the resolution “would have established a binding and credible mechanism for prosecuting those responsible for this terrible tragedy”. She also explained that this would have honoured the commitment taken in the previous Security Council resolution on the need to hold the perpetrators to account. She added that “The families and friends of those on board of that fateful flight deserve justice to be done”.
Similarly to the countries taking part in the joint investigation (Malaysia, Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine and Belgium), Kocijancic considers that setting up a United Nations court to try the perpetrators would have been the best option because this “would have generated broad international support for the prosecution process” seeking to clarify the circumstances of this tragedy. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)