BALI/DONETSK, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - The identification of the bodies of the Malaysia Airlines plane crash victims in eastern Ukraine will require two weeks, the New Strait Times newspaper wrote Friday citing Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
"The whole process [of the identification] must be done carefully and thoroughly. The last thing we would want is a mistake," Razak said at a press conference after a two-day visit to the Netherlands.
International experts, including from Malaysia, have so far opened 126 body bags out of the 226 delivered from the crash site.
"Be sure, the bodies are treated with due respect," the prime minister said.
Razak met with his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte to discuss the investigation of the MH17 crash and said that both Malaysia and the Netherlands have requested an immediate ceasefire at the site of the plane crash for international experts to investigate the causes of the incident and to find the remaining bodies.
The independence supporters of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said some bodies may still remain near the town of Torez.
"There is a large fragment of the plane body near the village of Petropavlivka. We did not lift it, waiting for the experts to arrive. There may be bodies under it," a militia representative told RIA Novosti, confirming earlier statements by international experts and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The OSCE mission and international experts had not been able to get to the crash site from Donetsk for four days due to intense fighting in the region, until they found an alternative route and finally reached the scene on Thursday.
The Donetsk’s Emergencies Ministry earlier failed to find at least 16 bodies.
The plane started falling apart while still in the sky, which dispersed the parts over 50 square kilometers (19 square miles), which contains forests and water ponds.
A total of 298 people, including 85 children and 15 crew members, died on July 17 as Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Donetsk Region of Ukraine. The tragedy claimed the lives of 193 Dutch citizens.
The cause of the crash remains unclear and the investigation into the circumstances is still underway, although obstructed by continuing clashes between independence supporters and government forces in the region.
