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Remains will not be back in time for Hari Raya

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday it might take weeks or months before remains of his compatriots who perished when Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine can be brought home.

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said yesterday it might take weeks or months before remains of his compatriots who perished when Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine can be brought home.

Malaysia had initially sought to have the remains returned by July 28 in time for Hari Raya, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Among the 298 passengers on the fateful Malaysia Airlines flight, 43 were Malaysians, including 15 crew. The rest were mainly Dutch nationals with 194 of them on board.

“We cannot avoid a very painstaking process. This is both the technical requirement and the legal requirement,” Mr Najib told reporters after signing a condolence book at the Dutch embassy. “Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the bodies can be brought back in time for Hari Raya.”

Once the remains are flown back to Malaysia, the government will provide a special grave site in Putrajaya for Muslim victims, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom said. Of the 43 Malaysians who died, 21 were Muslims.

The special site has been identified at the burial ground, and victims’ families will have a choice whether to have the bodies buried in Putrajaya or in their respective hometowns.

For now, the remains are flown from Ukraine to Netherlands, and brought to a military base in the Dutch town of Hilversum. The first bodies remains arrived in the Netherlands on Wednesday, and were met by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and hundreds of relatives.

Dutch police spokesman Ed Kraszewski said a team of 25 forensic experts and dozens of support staff began working to identify the remains. Staff will “examine the bodies ... take dental information, DNA and put all the information together in the computer and compare with the information they gathered from the families in the last days,” he said. “Then we have to see if there is a match.”

Meanwhile, the police and traffic authorities have appealed to the public not to stop on the highway as a convoy of hearses passes.

On Wednesday, the convoy passed through roads lined with thousands of members of the public, who applauded, threw flowers or stood in silence as the cars drove by.

Yesterday, two military aircraft carrying more remains of victims departed for the Netherlands while Australian and Dutch diplomats joined to promote a plan for a United Nations team to secure the crash scene which has been controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who says he fears some remains will never be recovered unless security is tightened, has proposed a multinational force mounted by countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was travelling with her Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans to Kiev to seek an agreement with the Ukraine government to allow international police to secure the wreckage, Mr Abbott added. Agencies

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