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German Lawmaker Urges Not to Use MH17 Tribunal to Escalate Ukraine Conflict

© Sputnik / Andrey Stenin / Go to the mediabankAt the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near Shaktyorsk
At the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near Shaktyorsk - Sputnik International
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Andrej Hunko, a German lawmaker, said that Europe should do its upmost to stop the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

People wearing t-shirts bearing a drawing of a plane and slogans reading  MH 17, One year in the skies hold flowers to the Dutch embassy in Kiev on July 17, 2015 in memory of the people who died in the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 - Sputnik International
MH17 Crash a Year On: Why Are These Five Questions Still Unanswered?
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The proposed international tribunal to bring to justice those responsible for last July's Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight crash, should not be used as an instrument to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, a German lawmaker told Sputnik Friday.

“The tribunal should not be used as an instrument for blaming and for further escalating the civil war in Ukraine. In the end, the victims of MH17 are victims of this war and we should do all the best to stop this war,” Andrej Hunko from Die Linke party said.

Earlier in July, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine put forward a joint proposal to set up an independent tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the plane crash. On Tuesday, Malaysia submitted a draft resolution to the UN Security Council.

He underlined that it is premature to talk about the establishment of the tribunal before the official report is published by the Dutch Safety Board in October.

An armed man stands at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, in this July 17, 2014 file picture - Sputnik International
Blaming Russia for MH17 Crash Prevents Investigation Impartiality
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the UN Security Council has never before classified civilian aviation disasters as a threat to international security. He stressed that the international body has nothing to do with the investigation.

“At the moment it is a wrong time to debate about this tribunal, because we don’t have a report of the Netherlands and maybe only after it is published in October we can talk about this tribunal. But first we have to wait for the official report,” Hunko said.

One year ago, on July 17, 2014, flight MH17 en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam crashed in southeastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board died. According to a preliminary report by the Dutch Safety Board, the Boeing 777 fell apart in midair after being hit by numerous high-energy objects.

Government forces, backed by many Western states, and independence supporters have been trading the blame for the crash.

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