M’sia PM welcomes progress on MH17 agreement

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the first two conditions of his agreement with pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Borodai, who is in command of the Ukrainian region where the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crashed, have been met.

The remains of 282 people downed in the plane have arrived in Kharkhiv, where arrangements will be made to move them to the Netherlands, and the plane’s black boxes have been handed over to Malaysia, said Mr Najib.

He made the comments on Facebook today (July 22), where he encouraged the co-operation to continue, and that investigators be granted full access to the crash site.

Earlier this morning at a press conference, Mr Najib said that he had spoken to Mr Borodai over the phone for the agreement.

Below is his statement in full:

I am pleased to confirm that the first two conditions have now been met. The train carrying the remains of those who lost their lives has arrived in Kharkhiv, where arrangements will be made to move them to Amsterdam.

And the Malaysian team have taken custody of the black boxes, which appear to be in good condition. They will held securely in Malaysian custody while the international investigation team is being formalised. At that time, we will pass the black boxes to the international investigation team for further analysis.

These were extraordinary circumstances which called for extraordinary measures. There were risks involved in pursuing this agreement. But we felt an obligation to explore all avenues to break the impasse, and secure the return of the remains and the black boxes. After meeting the families, I felt that we owed it to them to act.

So far, the agreement has been honoured. Malaysia requests that this co-operation continue, and that investigators are granted the full access to the site which was agreed.

I am relieved that we have been able to secure the breakthrough that has allowed us to move forward.

I would like to thank the Malaysian team on the ground, who have worked hard to support this operation. Thanks to their efforts, we are closer to finding out what happened to aircraft, and fulfilling our shared responsibility to those who lost their lives.