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Malaysia Demands International Tribunal In Downing Of Flight MH17
Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - Malaysia called Monday for an international tribunal in the downing of a commercial airliner over Ukraine that killed 298 people a year ago.
"It is important for the (UN) Security Council to take clear and decisive action against those responsible for the downing of MH17 to send a clear message," the Foreign Ministry said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, after it was apparently shot down by a missile.
The ministry called on the UN to act on its own demands for
accountability by setting up a tribunal.
Malaysia had pushed for such a tribunal in joint statements with other affected countries earlier, but this was its first independent statement.
"Establishment of the tribunal at this stage is also consistent with the Security Council's own practice," it said. "All other ad hoc criminal courts and tribunals were established prior to the completion of investigations.
"The judges, prosecutor and registrar would be appointed by the UN secretary-general," it said.
Russia has rejected proposals for the Security Council to establish a criminal tribunal over the downing of MH17.
8,000 HIV Patients At Risk In Eastern Ukraine: UN Envoy
Vancouver, July 20, 2015 (AFP) -- Some 8,000 people with HIV in war-torn eastern Ukraine face a critical shortage of medicine and their supply will run out in mid-August unless a blockade is lifted, a UN AIDS envoy has warned.
Speaking to AFP ahead of the International AIDS Society (IAS) conference, which opened Sunday, Michel Kazatchkine called on key nations to intervene as soon as possible.
"I am calling on the United States, Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia to do something," said Kazatchkine, the UN Secretary General's special envoy for AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
He said 8,000 patients are "caught in the political crossfire between the Ukrainian government and Russian-supported fighters" because they need both antiretroviral treatments and opioids, which are now blocked at border check points.
The looming crisis is centered in the mostly Russian-speaking Lugansk and Donetsk regions.
The area once housed 25 percent of Ukraine's HIV-positive population, but thousands have ready fled, said Kazatchkine.
The 8,000 who remain are mainly injection drug users whose addictions are being treated with opioid substitution therapy (OST), and who are also taking antiretroviral drugs to keep their HIV infections under control.
He said the treatments are already paid for and the aid group Doctors Without Borders has pledged to deliver and oversee treatment.
But Ukraine will not allow the drugs to be shipped and argues the opioids require armed convoys, said Kazatchkine.
Russia bans the use of opioids to help wean addicts off drug addiction.