MELAKA: Sydney, Australia will see a warm homecoming this June 2 when the 32 remains of Australian soldiers and family will be coming home on that day.
Twenty four gallant heroes and eight family members who died during the Vietnam War and Malayan Emergency and laid to rest at the Commonwealth War Graves, Terendak Camp, Sungai Udang here will finally be home.
Malaysian Defence Ministry, in a statement, said yesterday the effort named Operation Reunites or Ops Reunites, a collaboration between the Malaysian and Australian governments, aims to reunite the remains with their next-of-kin at the Land Down Under.
An official handing over ceremony will be done at the Royal Malaysian Airforce Base, Subang on May 31 and the remains will arrive at the Royal Australian Air Force Base in Richmond, Sydney on June 2 in a national level military ceremony, said the statement.
Meanwhile a song titled ‘I’m coming home’ sang by Skylar Grey echoed through the ears of journalists and cameramen involved in the media coverage of Ops Reunites at the Commonwealth War Graves here yesterday.
Australian Army’s Unrecovered War Casualties manager Brian Manns said the families of the 32 Australians buried here from 1964 to 1969 had requested the Australian government to exhume and bring them back home.
He said his team worked in many countries and anywhere Australian soldiers remains were found.
According to him, the cooperation his team had received from their Malaysian counterpart was fantastic and demonstrated the closeness and team spirit between Malaysia and Australia.
“The way we work with our Malaysian counterpart is first grade and it is really a pleasure to work with them, the support we receive is the very best in the whole world,” he said.
Ops Reunites Facilitator Major General Datuk Dr Mohd Ilham Haron said it was also a pleasure for the Malaysian Army to help Australia bring the remains back home.
“This operation shows how close Malaysia and Australia are, so we are really glad to help our friends and reunite the soldiers and families with their love ones back home,” he said. – Bernama