Chinese relatives turn on M’sia govt officials

Relatives have been speaking of hunger strikes and demonstrations in recent days.

BEIJING - Relatives of Chinese passengers on board MH370 vented their fury Friday in their first meeting in Beijing with Malaysian government officials, almost two weeks after the aircraft vanished.

The event began in angry fashion, with family members yelling at the group of political representatives and senior military officials to stand up when they were being introduced, rather than nodding while sitting down.

“You have wasted so much time,” shouted one anguished relative, his voice quivering.
Chinese citizens make up 153 of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight 370 — two-thirds of the total — and the meeting took place at a hotel where their loved ones have been waiting for news.

Australia released satellite photos of possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean on Thursday, but officials stressed that the sighting was unconfirmed.

The Malaysian delegation arrived in Beijing late Thursday after repeated, angry demands by relatives for an opportunity to question Kuala Lumpur officials about the search and rescue operation.

Previous daily meetings at the hotel have been with representatives of Malaysia Airlines, and the relatives have been growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of answers.

Relatives have been speaking of hunger strikes and demonstrations in recent days.
AFP understands they have also been attempting to organise themselves into groups aimed at putting added pressure on the Malaysian government.

Uniformed police officers ushered foreign reporters out of the room before the more than three hour long meeting began, while a handful of selected Chinese state media organisations remained inside.

Domestic media are tightly controlled in China.

Yesterday, Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told during the press conference that Malaysia will send a high-level working team to Beijing to deal with issues related to the missing MH 370.

He said that the team will give briefings and updates to the passengers families on the latest search and rescue situation.

The delegation will be comprised of representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Royal Air Force, the Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airlines, he added.

“The high-level team I announced yesterday is leaving for Beijing this evening. I would also like to confirm that representatives from the Malaysian government spoke to the families who were present here yesterday,” he said.

He added that the Prime Minister’s special envoy to China and the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia would lead a briefing last night for the Chinese families who are here in Kuala Lumpur.

“The representatives of the Department of Civil Aviation, the Armed Forces, the police, Foreign Affairs Ministry will also be at the briefing.

According to Hishammuddin, the government understands what the families badly want to know, however, they simply could not provide the information.

“For families around the world, the one piece of information they want most is the information we just don’t have: the location of MH370,” he said yesterday.

FMT