Solemn ceremony held to honor MH17 victims
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E-mail CNTV, July 24, 2014
The process of flying all the bodies from Eastern Ukraine could take several days, and identification could take several months. Earlier, CCTV's Tony Cheng brought back reports from Donetsk, Ukraine, where the first coffins were prepared to leave the battlefield for their final journey home. A solemn ceremony was held to honor the victims.
A simple and solemn ceremony, to mark the beginning of their final flight. The first coffins prepare to leave Eastern Ukraine, en route to the Netherlands where the identification process can begin. It has been a difficult and lengthy route so far, the victims often shown little respect But today, finally, some dignity was restored.
"Today your journey home begins. It still will be a long journey. We have a painful identification process to go through that will take time. But the Dutch government wants to assure family members and all those concerned that we want to do identification as quickly as possible with full respect for human dignity and the individual," Dutch government representative Hans Doctor said.
What will make that process more painful, is the disturbing announcement from Dutch forensic investigators that they have only two hundred bodies. That is eighty two less than the separatists said they had recovered from the crash site.and leaves ninety eight people unaccounted for.
It's no surprise the crash site is spread over fifteen square kilometers and while a superficial search has been done, much remains untouched.
And still very few investigators at the scene, nor boundaries set. European observers have raised concerns that parts of the wreckage have been tampered with and cut other parts simply removed. But with security so uncertain as fighting continues nearby, getting large numbers of investigators in is almost impossible. Even the local government has no idea how to proceed.
"We are waiting for the experts to investigate this and we've been waiting since the 17th but we have no more information than that and today is already six days," Rossyne village official Bite Oleg said.
And everywhere reminders of the sudden and tragic loss of life. A week ago, the passengers were packing their bags in anticipation of a holiday, a work trip or a visit home, Now their belongings lie strewn across the countryside where they fell from the sky.
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