The first bodies of those killed in the MH17 massacre have been loaded on to a cargo plane ready to be transported to the Netherlands.
The bodies of around 200 international victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy have already been transported by train from the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to government-controlled Kharkiv, and will now be flown to Eindhoven to carry out an identification process which may take months.
There is concern however, that as many as 95 victims – one third of the total number of passengers on board MH17 – may still be missing after Dutch officials counted only 200 bodies on board the refrigerated morgue train in which rebels claimed to have placed 282 corpses and 87 body parts from a further 16 people.
The king and queen of the Netherlands will lead mourners as the first victims of the disaster are repatriated from the Ukraine later today.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will be in Eindhoven with relatives of the 298 people – including 10 Britons – killed when the Boeing 777-200 was apparently shot down by Russia-backed separatists over eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The Dutch government has also declared today a national day of mourning.
An unconfirmed number of bodies were released by the rebels yesterday and taken to the government-controlled city of Kharkiv by train.
Two military aircraft will fly some of them to Eindhoven this afternoon, where they will be met by the royals, prime minister Mark Rutte and relatives.
The Netherlands government said a minute’s silence will be held before a motorcade takes them to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks, where the process of identifying them will begin.
The number of bodies released is causing grieving relatives fresh anguish, however, after it emerged that as many as a third of the passengers could still be missing.
The devastating development came as international forensic experts finally boarded the train in which pro-Russian rebels had placed recovered bodies.
As the makeshift morgue arrived in the ‘safe’ Ukrainian city of Kharkiv yesterday rebel commanders claimed it contained 282 bodies and 87 body parts from 16 people.
This would have accounted for all of the 298 murdered when the Boeing 777 was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile last week.
However, after carrying out a body count last night, forensic experts found the number to be ‘significantly less’ than the figure claimed by separatist leader Alexander Borodai.
The head of the Dutch team leading the investigation, Jain Tuinder, said he estimated just 200 bodies had arrived in Kharkiv as well as a number of unidentified body parts.
Mr Tuinder vowed to recover the others, saying: ‘They will be found. We have to find them.
‘We will not leave until every remain has left this country so we will have to go on and bargain again with the people over there.’
Yesterday a train pulled into a station in the government-held city of Kharkiv in eastern-Ukraine at around 10am BST where Dutch investigators leading a probe into the disaster were waiting to take charge of the bodies.
A minute’s silence was held before the train’s doors were opened and international investigators finally began the gruesome task of trying to identify those inside.
There had been fears the bodies, including the ten Britons killed, would be used as a bargaining chip by pro-Russian separatists – believed to be behind the atrocity.
The train’s 185-mile journey from the crash site in the rebel-held village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, took 17 hours.
Last night an Australian air force plane and refrigerated trucks arrived in Holland to wait for the MH17 victims.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the first bodies would be flown to Eindhoven in the south of the country today to carry out a torturous identification process he warned could take months.
According to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, there are still human remains lying on the crash site.
‘We observed the presence of smaller body parts at the site,’ OSCE spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, told a briefing in Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk after his group inspected the site today.
He said all recovery efforts seem to have ended but that at the site his group saw a plastic bag with some human remains left behind while Malaysian experts noticed a strong smell indicating the likely presence of more remains in another spot.
‘We’ve never really seen that intensive combing over the site – people arm in arm going over the fields,’ Bociurkiw said, adding there was effectively no security at the site and that so far only a small number of international experts visited it.
It has also emerged that the cockpit is believed to have been sawn in half while under the control of Russian-backed separatists.
International monitors said large parts of the cockpit and every part of the fuselage were carried off questioning why such important pieces of evidence has been tampered with.
The separatists and Russia have denied shooting down the plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Jos van Roo, the team leader of the Dutch National Forensic Investigations Team, known as the LTFO, told the Wall Street Journal: ‘We have been collecting DNA samples, hair, fingerprints, information about scars or tattoos or moles.’
He said this information would then be handed the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) which will use sophisticated software called Bonaparte to match those samples to the victims.
The NFI said this process was completed in an around 30 days during an investigation into a 2010 crash in Libya which killed 104 people.
But with nearly three times as many bodies to examine – and others yet to be found – it suggests this investigation could take many months.
Ukrainian officials said 282 corpses have been found, along with 87 fragments from 16 bodies.
But there are fears some body parts may have been incinerated as aircraft wreckage exploded, making identification even more difficult.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said, in reference to his own citizens, that following any necessary forensic work, the remains of Malaysian citizens will then be flown home to Malaysia.
The same process is expected to follow for the citizens of other countries.
Pro-Russian separatists – who stand accused of bringing down the aircraft, possibly with a missile supplied by Moscow – bowed to a furious clamour for the bodies and black boxes to be handed to investigators five days after the crash.
Mr Razak said the boxes were handed over to the Malaysian team in Donetsk at 9pm Ukraine time last night.
The small handing over ceremony has finally solved the question as to what had happened to the two vital devices.
It was not immediately known what the Malaysian team would do with the black boxes, but there was speculation they would pass the boxes on to experts with experience of reading the data.
Mr Najib revealed that in recent days the team had been working quietly behind the scenes to establish contact with ‘those’ – a reference to the rebels – in charge of the MH17 crash site.
The contact was finally made – but he made it clear it had not been easy.
‘Under difficult and fluid circumstances, we have been discussing the problems that have occupied us all – securing vital evidence from the aircraft, launching an independent investigation and above all recovering the remains of those who lost their lives.’
The Prime Minister said that in another breakthrough an independent international investigation team would be guaranteed safe access to the crash site.
‘I must stress that although agreement has been reached, there remain a number of steps required before it is completed,’ said Mr Razak.
‘There is work still to be done, work which relies on continued communication in good faith. Mr Borodai (rebel leader) and his people have so far given their co-operation.
‘I ask that all parties continue to work together to ensure that this agreement is honoured; that the remains of our people are returned, that the black box is handed over, and that the international team is granted full access to the site.
‘Only then can the investigation into MH17 truly begin; only then can the victims be afforded the respect they deserve. We need to know what caused the plane to crash, and who was responsible for it, so that justice may be done.
‘In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and grief that the Malaysian people feel. And that I feel. But sometimes, we must work quietly in the service of a better outcome.
‘I understand that for the families, nothing can undo this damage. The lives taken cannot be given back; the dignity lost cannot be regained.
‘My heart reaches out to those whose loved ones were lost on MH17. We hope and pray that the agreement reached tonight helps bring them a clear step towards closure.’
In his first detailed response to criticism of Russia’s role in the crisis, President Vladimir Putin called on Western powers not to meddle in Russia’s domestic affairs and said steps were needed to strengthen the country’s military capabilities because of moves by NATO and to protect the economy from ‘external threats’.
The Kremlin leader did, however, say that Russia would use its influence with separatists in east Ukraine to allow a full investigation into the downing of a Malaysian airliner, but said the West must put pressure on Kiev to end hostilities.
