MH17 victims' remains return to Malaysia
Flags flew at half-mast in Malaysia for a day of mourning as the remains of 20 victims of flight MH17 were brought home, more than a month after the flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
Prime Minister Najib Razak led top officials and the King Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah in receiving the bodies and ashes of 20 of the 43 Malaysians passengers in a sombre ceremony with 450 military personnel at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
"Last month, 43 Malaysian lives were taken over eastern Ukraine," he said in a statement on Friday.
"Today we mourn the loss of our people. Today, we begin to bring them home. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives. Today we stand with you, united as one."
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai expressed hope that the relatives would finally find solace and peace with the return of their loved ones.
"Let us stand united in grief and mourn for the lives lost," he said. "May the families and friends find solace and peace in the healing process through our unified strength."
The remains, flown from Amsterdam aboard a special Malaysia Airlines flight, were the first to be repatriated after MH17 was shot down by a missile on July 17.
Twenty white hearses lined up on the tarmac as pallbearers in white carried the coffins and urns - three had already been cremated - wrapped in Malaysian flags. Relatives cried and prayed as the coffins were carried one by one to the hearses.
Outside the airport, Malaysia Airlines crew gathered with white flowers for the victims.
Eleven of the sets of remains were of passengers while nine were those of crew members of the flight, which was on the way to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam when it crashed.
Cars stopped on roads, railway stations went quiet while radio and television stations stopped their programs to join the minute of silence observed throughout the country once the hearses were loaded.
Authorities had earlier asked citizens of the Muslim-majority country to refrain from festive activities and don black out of respect for the victims.
Commuters streaming into the bustling streets of the capital Kuala Lumpur earlier in the morning were overwhelming black-clad.
"I feel sad for the relatives of the victims," said Cai Chan Beng, a train passenger waiting in central Kuala Lumpur. "It was a totally unnecessary loss of lives."
A total of 30 Malaysian citizens have been identified by a multinational team of forensics experts in the Netherlands, where DNA tests were conducted on the remains found at the crash site, Liow said.
Hishammuddin said a second group of remains would be arriving on Sunday.
Seven of those that arrived on Friday would be flown back to their respective home states by military aircraft, while the 13 others would be carried directly to their final resting places by the hearses.
