The first stage in bringing home the 37 Australian citizens and residents who

died on MH17 has started with the bodies of 282 victims arriving by train in
Ukraine's Kharkiv where they will be prepared to be formally identified.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Operation Bring Them Home would be headed
up by former defence chief Angus Houston, who also coordinated Australian
search efforts for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The refrigerated train carrying the dead has arrived in Kharkiv - in Ukraine's
east - where Australian and Dutch representatives will prepare them for
transport to the Netherlands for the identification process.
The transportation and identification process in Ukraine and the Netherlands
will involve consular officers, Australian Federal Police experts and air
safety investigators.
An Australian C-17 Globemaster plane will help transport the 282 victims'
bodies to the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
Despite Tuesday's progress, Mr Abbott warned there was 'still a long, long way
to go'.
'After the crime comes the cover-up,' he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
'What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale, and obviously
that has to stop.'
Mr Abbott said he understood the families' frustration at the lengthy process, but
it was something that needed to be done.
'I need to caution that this is necessarily a painstaking and methodical process
that will take some weeks,' he said.

Mr Abbott also stressed the Australian Government's main objectives were 'to
ensure the bodies are returned, the site is secured, the investigation goes forward
and justice is done'.

Also on Tuesday, Mr Abbott signed a condolence book for the victims on behalf
of the nation, writing: 'Twenty-three million Australians share the sadness of
those who mourn.'

The bodies will be flown to the Netherlands from Kharkiv to be formally

identified by forensic and identification experts
Operation Bring Them Home started just hours after Foreign Minister Julie
Bishop helped secure a unanimous vote in the United Nations Security Council
to allow 'safe, secure, full and unrestricted access' to the Malaysia Airlines crash
site for international investigators in a move to find out who is responsible for
the tragedy.
'There must be a ceasefire in the immediate area around the site,' Ms Bishop
told the Security Council.
'The victims must be treated with dignity, brought back to their homes and laid
to rest.
'All parties are required to fully cooperate with these efforts.
'Russia must use its influence over the separatists to ensure this. Russia must
also use its influence to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end.'
Former defence chief Angus Houston has been charged with the job to bring the
bodies of Australians home to their families
Retrieving the bodies has been an arduous task, which took five days to secure
after pro-Russian rebels finally agreed to release them.
They will now be flown to the Netherlands, where the doomed Malaysia
Airlines flight took off to Kuala Lumpur.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the first bodies would be flown to
Eindhoven - in the south of the country - to begin a torturous identification
process he warned could take months.
After arriving in Eindhoven, the bodies will be taken to the Kaporaal van
Oudheusden military barracks in Hilversum, about 100 kilometres away.

'As soon as a victim is identified first and foremost the family will be informed
and no one else. That can take weeks or months,' Mr Rutte said.
In the central Dutch city of Utrecht, a team of 150 investigators has been pulled
together to begin the grisly and painstaking task of trying to identify the victims.
They include police officers, military personnel, forensic dentists and other
medics, who have been tasked with collecting samples from close relatives
around the country to help identify the 193 Dutch victims.
Jos van Roo, the team leader of the Dutch National Forensic Investigations
Team (known as the LTFO), told the Wall Street Journal: 'We have been
collecting DNA samples, hair, fingerprints, information about scars or tattoos or
moles.'
He said this information would then be handed the Netherlands Forensic
Institute (NFI) which will use sophisticated software called Bonaparte to match
those samples to the victims
Painstaking: Malaysian experts check debris at the main crash site of the Boeing
777 Malaysia Airlines flight
The NFI said this process was completed in about 30 days during an
investigation into a 2010 crash in Libya which killed 104 people.
But with nearly three times as many bodies to examine - and others yet to be
found - it suggests this investigation could take many months.
Mr van Roo said the identification process had been so distressing, even for
experienced investigators, that the team is being assessed by a psychologist on a
daily basis.
The investigation has been all the more challenging after rebel militia were
accused of allowing the crash site's desecration and obstructing the process of
recovering the bodies of the 298 victims.
In some cases, remains have been left out for more than two days in sweltering
heat and to compound matters the refrigeration unit on the train carrying them
to Donetsk reportedly broke down.
Ukrainian officials said 282 corpses have been found, along with 87 fragments
from 16 bodies.

But there are fears some body parts may have been incinerated as aircraft
wreckage exploded, making identification even more difficult.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said, in reference to his own citizens,
that following any necessary forensic work, the remains of Malaysian citizens
will then be flown home to Malaysia.
The same process is expected to follow for the citizens of other countries.
Pro-Russian separatists - who stand accused of bringing down the aircraft,
possibly with a missile supplied by Moscow - bowed to a furious clamour for
the bodies and black boxes to be handed to investigators five days after the
crash.
Mr Razak said the boxes were handed over to the Malaysian team in Donetsk at
9pm Ukraine time on Monday.
The small handing over ceremony has finally solved the question as to what had
happened to the two vital devices.
It was not immediately known what the Malaysian team would do with the
black boxes, but there was speculation they would pass the boxes on to experts
with experience of reading the data.

K foreign secretary Philip Hammond said all the evidence currently available
indicates that the surface-to-air missile which destroyed the MH17 was supplied
by Russia
Mr Razak revealed that in recent days the team had been working quietly
behind the scenes to establish contact with 'those' - a reference to the rebels - in
charge of the MH17 crash site.
The contact was finally made - but he made it clear it had not been easy.
'Under difficult and fluid circumstances, we have been discussing the problems
that have occupied us all - securing vital evidence from the aircraft, launching
an independent investigation and above all recovering the remains of those who
lost their lives.'
The Prime Minister said that in another breakthrough an independent
international investigation team would be guaranteed safe access to the crash
site.

'I must stress that although agreement has been reached, there remain a number
of steps required before it is completed,' Mr Razak said.
'There is work still to be done, work which relies on continued communication
in good faith. [Rebel leader] Mr Borodai and his people have so far given their
co-operation.
'I ask that all parties continue to work together to ensure that this agreement is
honoured; that the remains of our people are returned, that the black box is
handed over, and that the international team is granted full access to the site.
'Only then can the investigation into MH17 truly begin; only then can the
victims be afforded the respect they deserve. We need to know what caused the
plane to crash, and who was responsible for it, so that justice may be done.
'In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and
grief that the Malaysian people feel. And that I feel. But sometimes, we must
work quietly in the service of a better outcome.
'I understand that for the families, nothing can undo this damage. The lives
taken cannot be given back; the dignity lost cannot be regained.
'My heart reaches out to those whose loved ones were lost on MH17. We hope
and pray that the agreement reached tonight helps bring them a clear step
towards closure.'

(Reuters) - People across Malaysia held a minute's silence and wore black on
Friday as the Southeast Asian country observed a day of mourning to mark the
return of the first 20 bodies among its citizens killed when a jetliner was
downed last month.

Malaysian Airlines (MAS) Flight MH17 crashed after apparently being struck
by a missile over war-torn Ukraine on July 17, worsening a year of tragedy for
the country following the baffling disappearance of another MAS flight in
March.

Flags flew at half mast and newspapers daubed their front pages in black to
honor the 20 victims, among 43 Malaysians who were on the flight carrying a
total of 298 passengers and crew, most of them Dutch.

Malaysian King Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah and Prime Minister Najib Razak
joined grieving relatives and somber Malaysia Airlines staff at a ceremony at
Kuala Lumpur International Airport to greet the special flight from Amsterdam
that brought home the remains.

"Today we mourn the loss of our people. Today, we begin to bring them home,"
Najib said in a statement.

In the multi-ethnic country where tension between different groups and

religions can run high, mourners united in grief with Muslim ethnic Malays and
ethnic Chinese standing side by side and reciting prayers for the dead.

"We see Malaysians uniting for one cause today. But there is no absolute closure
until the perpetrators are brought to justice," said Anthony Loke, an opposition
parliamentarian.

Bodies and wreckage from MH17 were strewn across sunflower fields in the
rebel-held region of Donestk for almost a week before the dead were
transported to Amsterdam. Russian-backed rebels are suspected of shooting
down the jetliner in the mistaken belief it was a Ukrainian military plane.

Fighting between the pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces has

hampered attempts for a swift investigation and the search for more remains.

The ceremony on Friday was muted except for the plane's engines as eight men,
dressed in traditional Malay attire, carried each coffin out. Hearses and
helicopters lined up to transport the victims home for burial.

The loss of MH17 came just four months after the disappearance of Malaysia
Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people on board. No trace of that aircraft or its
passengers has been found since it went missing on a flight from Kuala Lumpur
to Beijing.

"It has been a tough year but life goes on and we're here to continually support
each other," said an MAS air stewardess in uniform, holding a white rose.
Carried by soldiers and draped in the national flag, coffins carrying Malaysian
victims of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 returned home
yesterday as the search continues for those onboard another doomed jet and the
government battles the political fallout from the two tragedies.

The bodies and ashes of 20 victims from the airliner that was shot down over
eastern Ukraine last month were given full military honours and a day of
national mourning was declared - the first in the country's history.

Many people in offices in the nation of 30 million observed a minute's silence as

the hearses were driven from the tarmac of Kuala Lumpur International Airport
to private funerals. Some public trains in the capital stopped operating.

All 298 people on board died when the jet was shot down over an area of
Ukraine controlled by pro-Russia separatists on a flight from Amsterdam to
Kuala Lumpur. The victims included 43 Malaysians and 195 Dutch nationals.
An international inquiry is going on, but no one has been arrested.

"Today we mourn the loss of our people; today, we begin to bring them home,"
Prime Minister Najib Razak said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the
families and friends of those who lost their lives. Today we stand with you,
united as one."
Najib claimed personal credit for negotiating a deal with pro-Russian separatists
for the return of all the bodies of those on board. Few details have been released
over what the separatists were given in return. Some critics have said the
negotiations with people many see as terrorists set a dangerous precedent.

Najib's government had already been criticised for its handling of the still
unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and its 239
passengers and crew in March.

"Everyone wants closure for the families, there is no question," said Bridget
Welsh, a research associate at National Taiwan University. "But on the other
hand, [Najib's advisers] saw this as an opportunity for him to look good. It was
critical for the government to be seen as responsive and differentiate itself from
the handling of MH370."

The victims were carried aboard a specially chartered Malaysia Airlines jet from
Amsterdam, where they were taken from the crash site. The coffins were slowly
carried from the plane, one at a time, by teams of eight soldiers to waiting
hearses.

The government has said the bodies of the remaining Malaysians will follow
soon.

The country may never witness a similar homecoming for the victims of flight
MH370. Searchers have found no trace of the plane, which disappeared on a
flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and is believed to have crashed
somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean. A new underwater search of 60,000 sq
km of the seabed is due to begin next month and take up to a year.