National day of mourning for MH17 on Aug 22
The Malay Mail Online – 17 hours agoRELATED CONTENT
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PUTRAJAYA, Aug 14 — Malaysia today declared Aug 22 as its national day of mourning, as the country expects to receive the first batch of remains of Malaysian victims aboard flight MH17 on the same day.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the bodies of 15 Malaysians will be flown home on a special flight out of Amsterdam, and is scheduled to touch down at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 10am.
The flight will also carry the remains of one Dutch citizen, who will be buried here at the request of the victim’s family.
Upon arrival, the remains of each victim will be carried off the plane by members of the Malaysian Armed Forces and placed in a hearse during a brief ceremony to be organised as a mark of respect for the fallen.
“Before (the hearses) start their journeys, we will have a moment of silence... we hope all Malaysians nationwide will observe this moment of silence together,” Muhyiddin said of the ceremony, which will be televised live.
At the end of the ceremony, one of the victims will be flown by C130 military transport to Sarawak while three others will be flown using Nuri helicopters to their respective home towns as it would take too long to transport by conventional means.
The deputy prime minister said the Malaysian government is currently working out the details with family members to fly them to Amsterdam so they can accompany the bodies on the flight home.
This includes the families of two victims who have requested that the remains be cremated in Amsterdam.
“It is up to the families whether they want to accompany the remains from Amsterdam or receive the remains at the airport or to wait at their homes... the government will do what it can over the next few days to accommodate the next-of-kin,” he said.
On the request by the family of the Dutch citizen, Muhyiddin said he was made to understand that the victim was born in Malaysia and it was the victim’s wish to be buried here.
He, however, declined to reveal any more details regarding the victims, saying that their identities will only be made known on Aug 22 itself.
Muhyiddin said 24 of the 43 Malaysians aboard the ill-fated flight have so far been identified by Dutch authorities in charge of forensics and DNA work in Amsterdam, including the 15 who will be flown home next week.
He noted that Dutch authorities have yet to release the remains of the nine others already identified, as they still need to be processed.
Those positively identified include 14 passengers and 10 crew members. The first two were identified on August 4, followed by 14 more on August 8. Another six were identified on August 12, plus two more yesterday.
A total of 283 passengers and 15 crew died when flight MH17 was shot out of the sky while flying over the troubled Crimean region in Eastern Ukraine on July 17.
The Malaysia Airlines plane, which was bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, was initially believed to have been downed by a surface-to-air missile at an altitude of 33,000 feet.
