JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) confirmed that a number of Indonesian were among 280 passengers and 15 crew on board the Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot downed in Donetsk, Ukraine, near the Russian border.
The president, in a press briefing at the State Palace on Friday (July 18), said the government has still waiting for the official statement from the Malaysia Airline.
According to the president, the Foreign Ministry along with several Indonesian embassies continue its effort to get the real number and identifying Indonesian passengers on board the crashed plane.
Imam Ansyari, an official of Indonesian Embassy in Amsterdam, Netherland, as quoted by BBC, earlier revealed that his side estimated 11 Indonesian were on board the downed jet.
The MH17 was on flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But the jet tragically downed on Thursday noon of local time.
The Ukraine government, as quoted by Reuters, has accused pro-Russia rebels, aided by Russian military intelligence officers, of firing a long-range Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile to shot down the MH17 jet.
The Ukrainian security chief accused the involvement of two Russian intelligence officers in crash.
In a contrary, Reuters also reported that the Eastern Ukraine separatist leader Alexander Borodai, meanwhile, says airliner was shot down by Ukrainian government forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters, also denied the accusation as he says Kiev bears responsibility for crash of passengers plane because it was brought down in Ukraine. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)