The remains of the 16 soldiers would be placed together with those of another 12 servicemen from New Zealand at the camp.

The remains of all 28 soldiers will then be officially handed over by the Malaysian government to the New Zealand authorities at a special ceremony called the “Op Te Auraki” to be held at the Bunga Raya Complex at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, on Aug 20.

The remains will be repatriated to New Zealand.

The ceremony today was a mark of respect and appreciation displayed by 300 members of the Malaysian Armed Forces for their New Zealand counterparts who died between 1964 to 1969, and whose remains were buried at the CWG.

The ceremony was led by an officer and 36 members of various ranks from the 8th Battalion of the Royal Ranger Regiment (Para).

Also present to accord the fallen heroes the honour were Commander of the 10th Brigade Brigadier General Tengku Muhammad Fauzi Tengku Ibrahim, Commander of the 3rd Artillery Division Brigadier General Ahmad Abu Bakar, and a representative of the New Zealand Army, Captain Carl Nixon.

The servicemen died when engaged to help Malaysia fight various internal and external threats.