MH17: Malaysia will announce a day of mourning for crash victims, says PM

Malaysia will announce a national mourning day for the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 tragedy once the remains arrive in the country, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the mourning day was for the whole nation to grief over those who lost their lives in the crash, and to honour them.

The MAS flight, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew - when it went down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine near the Russian border on July 17.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft was believed to have been shot down, but until today no one has claimed responsibility for the heinous act.

"We will declare a day of mourning for the whole country and I will be there to receive the bodies when it arrives," he said at an appreciation dinner with the Malaysian special investigation team, here Thursday night.

Touching on the 195 Netherlands nationals on board the flight who had perished in the incident, Najib said he had met several Netherlanders, and they did not blame Malaysia or Malaysia Airlines for the tragedy.

"It is totally unexpected. The people of Netherlands understand this and they are with us," he added.

On his two-day working visit to the Netherlands starting Thursday, Najib said it was to offer condolences to the Netherlands and to have discussions with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte.

Najib, accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya arrived here Thursday morning.

Najib met his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte in The Hague over the MAS Flight MH17 crash in Ukraine, before moving to Hilversum to pay his respects to the remains of the air tragedy victims, who are undergoing identification and forensic process.

The Prime Minister also expressed gratitude to the special Malaysian investigation team who had given their commitment to bringing the bodies of the victims to Netherlands, and involved in recovering the MH17's two blackboxes, and also to those who are engaged in the Disaster Victims Identification (DIV).

Najib said Malaysia was committed to seek justice for the families of victims and committed to bringing the perpetrators to justice.

He said with the recovery of the blackboxes, he hoped information in the box could contain solid evidence to bring those responsible for the tragedy, to justice.