By Farrah Naz Karim And Aliza Shah | New Straits Times – 3 hours ago
KUALA LUMPUR: Forensic experts, tasked with matching the identities of victims from the MH17 tragedy with their ante-mortem data, have identified the first Malaysian among the remains brought to their table.
A source, close to the investigations and forensic processes going on in the Netherlands, said this confirmation followed the latest endorsement of the identities of 17 people who were on the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, on Tuesday.
The majority of those identified were Dutch citizens.
“Among the 17, there was a Malaysian.
“He was a passenger, not a crew member, and an Indian,” the source told the New Straits Times.
The endorsement was the third in more than two weeks since the remains of those on board the flight were retrieved from Grabovo, a village near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, and flown to the Netherlands. The Netherlands had been given the role of lead investigator.
The first two bodies identified were Dutch citizens. Their government, upon confirming their identities, informed the families and the mayor of the town where they lived.
It has, however, not been announced if the remains had been returned to their families.
The international Disaster Victims Identification team is made up of some 200 forensic experts, including Malaysia’s own team of experts from the Health and Defence ministries, the Royal Malaysia Police as well as the Chemistry Department.
Its identification board sits twice weekly, on Tuesday and Friday, to endorse the matching of the victims’ identities.
“In between, the reconciliation team will carry on with the matching processes and prepare the documents,” the source said.
The identification board will sit again today to endorse the identities of more victims, if there was a need for further reconciliation
of the victims to their ante-mortem data, which includes DNA
samples, fingerprints and dental records.
of the victims to their ante-mortem data, which includes DNA
samples, fingerprints and dental records.
The passenger manifest issued soon after the tragedy showed that there were only two male Indian Malaysians: a 49-year-old man and his 9-year-old son.
Paul Rajasingam Sivagnanam, a Shell employee, was travelling with his wife, lecturer Mabel Anthonysamy, and son, Matthew Ezekial Sivagnanam.
Based on their seating arrangements, Paul was in seat 4K, a window seat before the first bulkhead
in the business class, three rows away from the Boeing 777-200’s cockpit.
in the business class, three rows away from the Boeing 777-200’s cockpit.
His wife and son were seated together in seats 30D and 30E, two rows after the plane’s last bulkhead in the economy class.
Mabel and Matthew were the 242th and 243th passengers to check into the fight. Paul was the 239th to do so.
If Paul had not changed his seat, he would have had Rahimah Noor Mohd Noor, (who was returning home for Hari Raya from Geneva, where she had been living for 30 years), 67, sitting next to him during the flight, which lasted no more than three hours.
Flight MH17 pushed off from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam shortly after noon, just as the Malaysia Airlines jet had done the day before.
Forty-three Malaysians, including 15 crew members, were on that flight when it was blown out of the sky on July 17.
The aircraft, with 298 people on board, was due to arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10am on July 18.
The DVI team had opened 600 files for 150 complete bodies and 300 body fragments handed over to them.
The remains came in 226 coffins, some of which were believed to
contain body parts of several individuals.
contain body parts of several individuals.
The team had given it between two and three weeks to complete their task.
Aside from the Sivagnanams, two other Malaysian families died in the tragedy.
Shell employee Tambi Jiee
was with his entire family on the flight.
was with his entire family on the flight.
Tambi and his wife, Ariza Ghazalee, 47, together with their four children, were on their way back from Kazakhstan transiting in Amsterdam.
The family from Kuching was returning to the country for good
after his three-year stint in Kazakhstan.
after his three-year stint in Kazakhstan.
Tambi had been transferred
to Shell Malaysia’s headquarters here.
to Shell Malaysia’s headquarters here.
Malaysian television and theatre actress Shuba Jaya and her Dutch husband, Paul Goes, a director of a Dutch-based company, were returning to Kuala Lumpur after their
trip to the Netherlands to introduce their baby daughter to her grandparents.
trip to the Netherlands to introduce their baby daughter to her grandparents.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam had said during his recent trip to the Netherlands, where he met the DVI team, that getting DNA samples from families who died was more complex than those retrieved from parents or children of the victims.
