MH370 families in desperate bid for answers to mystery
As the Chinese relatives of passengers onboard flight MH370 prepare for yet another night’s silent protest outside the Malaysian Embassy there is a huge need to keep the media’s interest in their campaign for the truth.
Every day they meet and plan an event, whether that be a press conference, public prayers, a strategy, just something to ensure the mystery of MH370 remains in our consciousness.
At midnight last night, after yet another galling meeting with Malaysia Airlines, with little technical information forthcoming, the families walked out of the hotel where they have been staying since the plane disappeared. Their disgust and outrage followed an eight hour marathon question and answer session where they felt they learned no more.
They clashed with police immediately but pushed on, and marched to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing where they still are now. The press is not allowed even close to them, and the number of police officers far outweighs that of family members.
They are having to take photographs of themselves, for themselves, because we can’t get near enough. They are then posting them on the social network, chat forum WeChat so that they can be published, and seen.
Many of them are now also threatening to go on hunger strike too, in a desperate attempt to demand that someone of significant seniority from the Malaysian government comes and talks to them, and at least attempts to give them the answers they so long for. So far, nobody has emerged from the building to do that.
Whilst their requests seemingly fall on deaf ears, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, managed to find the time to explain, to US television in a sit-down interview, his government’s position on the investigation, and he revealed that it will release its preliminary report on the plane's disappearance next week, only deepening the relatives’ frustrations.
They are the ones still suffering, they are the ones most in need of information yet they are the ones being ignored.