KUALA LUMPUR: Protesters marched on the Russian embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, waving placards and demanding justice for the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight that was shot down over Ukraine last week.
Several hundred chanted “we want justice” and demanded that authorities catch whoever was responsible for downing the passenger jet in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people.
Western countries have accused the rebels, possibly with help from Russia, of shooting down the plane, and the United Nations Security Council unanimously backed an Australian-drafted resolution on Monday demanding that the pro-Russian rebels controlling the crash site refrain from compromising evidence.
The rally was organized by the youth wing of UMNO, Malaysia’s largest political part.
A Russian Embassy official said that staff members had been ordered to stay inside the embassy compound. She did not want to give her name as she was not authorized to speak to the media.
Earlier Tuesday, the Russian ambassador, Lyudmila Vorobyeva, reiterated that Russia had nothing to do with the plane crash and pointed the finger at Ukraine.
“The rebels do not possess any defense systems that are capable of shooting a plane at the altitude of 10,000 kilometers. They do not have this kind of system. Russia never supplies this kind of system,” she told a news conference. (Agencies)
She said that Russia was not “playing” games of laying blame without any evidence. “We are not doing that. We are calling for a thorough investigation that could produce evidence of who is responsible for this tragedy,” she said. (Agencies)
