Honor to sufferers of MH17

KUALA LUMPUR: Millions of black-clad Malaysians fell silent yesterday in tribute to their 43 countrymen killed in the MH17 disaster as the first remains were brought home and laid to rest amid deep sorrow and anger.
People across the country of 28 million observed a minute's silence, shortly after a Malaysia Airlines jet landed with the remains of 20 people killed when MH17 was blasted from the sky by a suspected surface-to-air missile over Ukraine.Five weeks after the July 17 tragedy, the coffins and urns were conveyed to white hearses in a solemn ceremony presided over by Malaysia's King Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah and Prime Minister Najib Razak at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.Malaysia had declared a day of national mourning, with flags lowered to half-mast, and business, sport, entertainment and other events cancelled or toned down. Residents of the capital Kuala Lumpur overwhelmingly donned black, with many Muslim women in flowing black robes and headscarves, as state television aired recitations from the Quran and photos of the dead.
Dozens of Malaysia Airlines cabin crew and pilots, wearing their work uniforms and holding Malaysian flags and white flowers, held an emotional vigil near the airport ceremony, some weeping, others praying for their lost colleagues.Some wore T-shirts bearing their colleagues' names and the Arabic phrase for 'See you in Paradise.' Fifteen crew were aboard.
The special flight arrived from Amsterdam, where bodies have been taken for identification by Dutch authorities investigating the tragedy. All 298 on board Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight MH17 were killed, including 193 Dutch nationals.The West accuses Russian-backed separatists of shooting down the plane, while Moscow blames Ukraine.The remains were conveyed onward to their hometowns for memorials in mosques, churches and temples. Many were quickly laid to rest amid grief and anger.MH17 has compounded Malaysian grief over the troubling and still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 just four months earlier. It vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard after inexplicably deviating from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing path. Malaysia's social media saw an outpouring of sorrow, with many users expressing hope that yesterday's homecoming could help bring closure for both disasters. 'Welcome home #MH17, and please come back to us #MH370,' read one posting.