STATEMENT BY H.E. AMBASSADOR HUSSEIN HANIFF, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALAYSIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS AT THE UNSC MEETING ON RESOLUTION 2166 NEW YORK, 21 JULY 2014 Mr. President, I wish to thank you for giving my delegation the opportunity to address the Council at this point in time. I wish to also thank all the Council members, in particular the delegation of Australia, for their efforts in coordinating and presenting the resolution. We welcome the unanimous adoption of the resolution by the Security Council today. Mr. President, 2. As one of the countries most severely impacted by the tragedy of MH17, Malaysia attaches great importance to this resolution. 3. For my delegation, this resolution lays the groundwork for the approach to be taken by the international community - in particular the United Nations system and its mechanisms – towards addressing the many questions raised from the downing of MH17. 4. I wish to underscore that no amount of measures will ever compensate nor assuage the grief and suffering of the families and loved ones of the victims who were on board MH17. 5. It is incumbent upon us as members of the United Nations family, to honour the victims by undertaking a full, thorough and independent investigation into the downing of MH17. Mr. President, 6. Last Friday, during the Council’s emergency meeting on Ukraine, I had informed the Council that Malaysia would immediately dispatch a team to Kiev with a view to assisting in the investigations on MH17. This team arrived in Kiev on Saturday, 19 July. 7. The Malaysian team in Kiev has joined other national teams from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States in what is known as the “Joint International Investigation Team”. Malaysia regrets to note that as of today, the Joint International Investigation team has yet to be given full access to the crash site. 8. Malaysia finds this lack of full access unacceptable and reiterates the call on all States and actors in the region to cooperate fully in the conduct of the international investigation including being given immediate and unrestricted access to the crash site and for full guarantees to be provided for the safety and security of the investigation teams. 9. At the same time, all parties must exert all efforts to preserve the integrity of the crash site with a view to facilitating the work of the investigation teams. Such guarantees must also extend to the dignified and respectful treatment of the bodies and remains of the victims. 10. For Malaysia, one of the key mission priorities for our investigation team is the recovery, identification and repatriation of the bodies and remains of the victims. This is to ensure that their families and loved ones could have closure and that the victims are accorded the dignity of a proper burial. Mr. President, 11. Flight MH17 was a civilian airliner. If it is subsequently established that the plane was indeed shot down, we demand that those responsible for downing the plane must be held to account and be swiftly brought to justice. 12. We believe that the present resolution paves the way for such efforts and as such, we have given our strong support by co-sponsoring Resolution 2166. We now look forward to its full implementation by all concerned parties. I thank you, Mr. President.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 04:22:47 +0000