MH17: Malaysia Dedicates All Available Resources Towards Recovering Victims' Remains

KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will continue to dedicate all available resources towards efforts to recover all human remains of the MH17 crash victims. Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said while the process of identification of bodies could at last begin for those who had been brought to the Netherlands on Wednesday, those whose remains had not been found should not be forgotten. "Our goal now is to unite those who have perished with their families and loved ones as fast as possible while allowing investigators to continue their work at the crash site. "We urge the search to continue for those who are still missing and pledge to exhaust all efforts to recover all human remains," he said in a statement Wednesday. He said Malaysia would join the international community to discover the truth behind the incident, not only out of respect for those who lost their lives and their grieving families and loved ones, but also to prevent such atrocities from happening again and to bring those responsible to justice. "In the meantime our priority is to support those who share a common grief while working closely with all governments, international organisations and responsible parties to help guarantee a full and thorough investigation is undertaken," he said. Liow also thanked the Dutch government and its Prime Minister Mark Rutte for their support and collaboration during this difficult time. "We are working closely together to respectfully repatriate the victims' bodies," he said. Meanwhile in his Twitter account, Liow said the Dutch military plane carrying the bodies and remains of MH17 passengers and crew had finally landed in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The remains of more than 200 people were shipped Tuesday to the Ukraine city of Kharkiv on refrigerated train cars and then flown to Eindhoven from an airport in Kharkiv. MAS Flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border on the night of July 17. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft was carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew. It is believed the plane was shot down but until today, no one has claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft. --BERNAMA