REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The identification of the victims of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 air crash is expected to be completed in mid-July, at the earliest. "Our estimation is that all remains will be fully identified in mid-July," Head of the Russian Forensic Team Prof Andrey Kovalev said on Saturday.

"All forms of the smallest particles from the victims` remains will be identified," Kovalev said.

To assist in the identification process, the Russian government sent 17 chemicals used in such investigations on Saturday. "We provided the chemical reagents at the request of the Indonesian Police for the identification process," Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Alexander Ivanov said at Halim Perdanakusuma air force base, east Jakarta, Saturday.

The chemical reagents include AmpFISTR Human Identifier Plus, Human DNA Quantification Kit, Minifier Kit, POP 4, and Gene Scan 500 LIZ. The Russian government paid for the cost of the reagents worth 700,000 USD, according to officials. 

The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into Mount Salak, Bogor District, West Java Province, on May 9 while on a demonstration flight with 45 people on board, which included eight Russians and 45 Indonesians and left no survivors.

Very experienced

Meanwhile, from Indonesian side, Head of Dr Sukanto Police Hospital, Brig Gen Agus Prayitno said that Indonesian forensic experts were already very experienced. On the process of identification, the Russian forensic team did not play much role in identifying the victims, he added.

"Our forensic experts are very experienced so that they were not much helped by the Russian DNA forensic team,"  told reporters here on Saturday.

He said that Dr Sukanto Police Hospital`s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team would continue to work to identify the victims, although the evacuation operation of the Sukhoi victims had officially been terminated. "The DVI team still continues working at the hospital`s mortuary. The same is true to the team the Cipinang DNA laboratory," Agus said.

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