We will bury her in Taiping, says brother of MH17 chief stewardess
The Malaysian Insider – 10 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
- We will bury her in Taiping, says brother of MH17 chief stewardess
As Putrajaya prepares to repatriate the remains of Malaysian passengers and crew members of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was downed over eastern Ukraine last month, the family of chief stewardess Azrina Yakob have finalised burial arrangements in her husband’s hometown in Taiping, Perak.
“All of us have prepared for the day when they bring her body home,” Azrina’s younger brother Firdaus told The Malaysian Insider.
The remains of 16 people identified by the authorities from post-mortems conducted in the Netherlands are due to arrive on August 22.
Malaysia has declared a national day of mourning for the victims of MH17 on that day.
Firdaus said Malaysia Airlines had informed the family that Azrina's remains will be among those arriving on August 22
“My mother and my brother-in-law might go to Amsterdam prior to that for final identification. But that is subject to change,” he said.
He said the family had agreed that Azrina’s remains would be brought back to her husband’s hometown in Taiping, Perak, for a Muslim burial.
“We feel it will be easier that way as her husband has relocated to Taiping,” said Firdaus, the youngest of four children.
Azrina, 41, was one of two chief stewardesses on board M17. The other was Dora Shahila Kassim, 47.
Azrina is survived by her husband Mohd Rafliz Mohd Tahir and their two children, Arissa Raisya, three, and Aqil Rais, six.
Authorities said that 15 of the 16 bodies to be brought back were those of Malaysians, while the last was a Dutch national, whose family had requested a burial in Malaysia.
At least two Malaysian women on board are known to have been married to Dutch citizens.
Twenty-four of the 43 Malaysians on the flight have been identified by Dutch investigators almost a month after the jet carrying 298 people was downed on July 17, suspected to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile.
"The names of the victims will be released on the day they are brought back to Malaysia," Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Thursday, according to a Bernama report.
Meanwhile, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim urged family members of MH17 victims not to view the remains of their loved ones as they were not in perfect condition.
“This is because the bodies are not in an ordinary state and perhaps it is best for the families to remember the departed in their most perfect memory," she was quoted as saying by The Star.
However, she said they could still view the remains if they wished.
According to The Star report, religious rites would be performed on the victims according to their respective beliefs, including bathing of the body for Muslims.
Rohani said the remains would then be vacuum-packed before being sealed in a coffin and sent home.
The remains will be given a ceremonial reception at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Bunga Raya Complex upon reaching home on Friday.
Berita Harian had reported that out of the 16 bodies, six were Muslims, while four were Christians, four of the Buddhist faith, one Sikh and one Hindu.
The first victim from Malaysia identified was Elaine Teoh, 27, from Penang.
The Star said Teoh’s Dutch boyfriend, 27-year-old Emiel Mahler, with whom she was travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, had yet to be identified.
Teoh and Mahler both worked in the financial sector in Melbourne and were on their way to Kuala Lumpur after holidaying in Portugal and Holland.
Besides Malaysians, the other nationals on board MH17 were from the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand. – August 17, 2014.
