Repatriation mission finds new human remains of MH17

The Dutch repatriation mission in eastern Ukraine has recovered new human remains and personal belongings of victims of the MH17 disaster, mission leader Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg announced Wednesday in a statement by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice.

Wintry weather conditions had made it hard for the Netherlands to do recovery work in the area around the disaster site for months, but last Thursday the repatriation mission resumed. According to Aalbersberg, the work has progressed steadily, despite snow, rain and strong winds.

The goal of the new mission is to clear two "burned" sites, locations where large fire has raged, and to search the area northwest of Petropavlivka. Due to the security situation in that district, a Dutch team has never been there before.

The mission will last as long as necessary, at least for some weeks. According to the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, the mission will make the best efforts to finalize the recovery of the last human remains, personal property and debris that may be left.

The found human remains, personal belongings and debris have been transferred to the city of Kharkiv and will later be transferred to the Netherlands for identification and investigation respectively.

In recent days, one little burned site of 45 by 80 meters was fully searched and the experts made progress on the larger burned site, measuring 100 by 100 meters.

"Also on this big site we've found human remains, personal belongings and debris," Aalbersberg said. "However, due to the wet weather, the experts have not been able to examine some deeper parts of this place. This will happen as soon as the circumstances permit that."

The mission members also carried out recovery operations in the area around the burned sites and visited the area north of Petropavlivka. "The mission will come back to this area a number of times to determine for themselves that all the recovery work has been done here," said Aalbersberg.

The Dutch team is working together with the authorities in Kharkiv, the other villages near the plane crash site, with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES).

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. On board were 298 people, of whom 296 have been identified. Endit