The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution calling for international investigators at the crash site of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine to have unfettered access to the crash site and demanding a cease-fire in the area.
Russia, which several nations have urged to rein in the separatist groups thought to be behind the missile strike against the jetliner, joined other Security Council members in to pass the resolution in 15-0 vote despite having the power to veto the resolution.
The resolution was however blunt in demanding that there be no further resistance of the type faced by investigators at the crash location even until last weekend, expressing “serious concern that armed groups in Ukraine have impeded immediate, safe, secure and unrestricted access to the crash site and the surrounding area for the appropriate investigating authorities…”
Although the aircraft’s ‘black boxes’ containing critical flight data were handed over to a Malaysian delegation by Monday evening the UNSC resolution nevertheless warned rebels in the area not to tamper with any evidence on the site.
In this regard the UNSC demanded, “armed groups in control of the crash site and the surrounding area refrain from any actions that may compromise the integrity of the crash site, including by refraining from destroying, moving, or disturbing wreckage, equipment, debris, personal belongings, or remains, and immediately provide safe, secure, full and unrestricted access to the site and surrounding area for the appropriate investigating authorities.”
Although investigators appeared to have more access to the debris of the aircraft and most of the bodies at the location were transported to the city of Kharkiv by train on Tuesday, a full five days have passed since the date of the surface-to-air missile attack against the passenger aircraft, raising the possibility that forensic evidence at the site may have been compromised.
