New York: The atmosphere around the crash site of MH17 changed almost the moment the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to support a resolution calling for rebels to cede control of the site and release remains of victims, the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, has learned.
Speaking with Fairfax at the Australian UN ambassador’s residence overlooking the East River not far from the UN headquarters in Manhattan, Ms Bishop said she had been briefed early on Tuesday morning on the impact of the resolution by former Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is in Ukraine as a special envoy to oversee the repatriation of remains.
Marshal Houston told her that in the lead-up to the vote the atmosphere was tense as officials waited to see the outcome.
As soon as the vote came in “everything started to fall into place", said Ms Bishop.
“The OSCE [Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe] was able to get greater cooperation from the rebels. The government in Kiev was able to start putting things in place. He said it was palpable that there was this anticipation as to what would happen and that the environment has become much more conducive to implementing the terms of the resolution.”
Remains of victims had already arrived in Kharkiv by train where a minute’s silence was observed and the Australian ambassador to Ukraine, Jean Dunn, had met them, Ms Bishop said.
From there they will be transferred by aircraft to the Netherlands where the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, will be in place.
Ms Bishop said his presence on behalf of the Australian government and people would “maintain a level of dignity and respect that has been missing for the last six days".
Since the UN Security Council's resolution, the black boxes have been transferred by the Netherlands to Britain for analysis. Meanwhile Australian disaster victim identification experts have been dispatched to the Netherlands to assist in forensic work, a field that Australia built expertise in after the 2002 Bali bombings.
Ms Bishop said she did not know how long it would be until the remains of Australian victims would be repatriated. In part that will be dictated by the state of the remains.
As Fairfax spoke with Ms Bishop, in the next room Australia’s UN ambassador, Gary Quinlan, was in talks with Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans and Prime Minster Tony Abbott, who was on a phone hook-up.
The group was hammering out details of the transfer of control of the investigation to the Netherlands. Staff and officials in the residence appeared at once tired by days of negotiations and briefings across time zones, and energised by their mission and the success they had achieved the day before in the Security Council.
Ms Bishop gave more details about her “tense and intense” negotiations in the hours before the UN Security Council vote with the Russian UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin.
He insisted that Russia could not accept an investigation headed by Ukraine, the normal procedure dictated by international law. He also kept returning to the arguments then being mounted in Moscow, that Ukraine was entirely responsible and that Russia had no influence in the region. Ms Bishop countered that the resolution had nothing to do with Ukrainian sovereignty but with the situation at the crash site, where international investigators were still finding themselves blocked while looters desecrated the bodies of victims.
At one point Ms Bishop sought to ease tension in the room by noting that Mr Quinlan’s office, where the talks were being held, became Mr Churkin's “home away from home” while the two worked closely together on a resolution on delivering aid to civilians in Syria. Mr Churkin smiled and nodded.
By the time the meeting ended, Mr Churkin had said Moscow would support the resolution, but given his tough language on Ukraine’s alleged responsibility Ms Bishop was still concerned. What Mr Churkin did not know was that the Dutch and Australian leaders and officials were also coming to the conclusion that the investigation should be led by the Netherlands, though with Ukrainian involvement. That was a card Ms Bishop had in her pocket during their final meeting before the 3pm vote, but one she never had to play.
Ms Bishop went into the 3pm Security Council meeting with a written statement supporting the passing of the resolution, and in the back of her mind a form of words to use should Russia's position have changed.
“It would have been more direct,” she said.
Just like everyone else in the room, she watched Mr Churkin closely when the vote was called.
Ms Bishop declined to comment on whether Russia should face further international action over its support of the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east.
“Until I see that site secured, an investigation underway and the bodies going through the appropriate process, I am not even going to think about sanctions,” she said.
Ms Bishop is expected to leave New York in the coming hours, though she would not confirm details. It is expected her itinerary will include the Netherlands and Ukraine.
