Funeral arrangements for victims to be announced soon, says Wee Ka Siong

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PUTRAJAYA: Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai will annnounce at the appropriate time details on funeral arrangements of Malaysian victims in the MAS Flight MH17 tragedy, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

He said this was because the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process was still underway and would take some time to be completed.

In relation to this, the government through various ministries, agencies and parties involved were holding meetings from time to time on the funeral arrangements, he said, adding that he and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Joseph Kurup were still holding discussions with the families of victims who are non-Muslims.

“We are looking for the best ways for the funerals because they have their respective religions and not all Chinese are Buddhists. Thus the consent of the next-of-kin is needed,” he told a press conference here yesterday,

On July 24, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein had announced that the government had appointed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and Kurup to handle funeral arrangements for Malaysian Muslim and non-Muslim victims of the tragedy respectively.

The MAS flight, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in eastern Ukraine on July 17. It was carrying 298 people – 283 passengers and 15 crew.

The Ukrainian authorities believe that the Boeing 777 was shot down.

MH17 had left Amsterdam at 12.15pm (Netherlands time) on July 17 and was to have arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 6.10am (Malaysian time) the next day.

Besides Malaysians, nationals from The Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand were among the 298 passengers and crew on board. — Bernama