Hundreds of distraught MH370 family members marched on the Malaysian embassy in Beijing following Monday's announcement that they should "assume beyond reasonable doubt" the doomed flight crashed into the Indian Ocean, leaving no survivors.
Several hundred relatives left the hotel they were staying at in Beijing early Tuesday morning, taking a bus to the embassy to protest over what they called the mishandling of information and a cover up by the Malaysian government.
According to SCMP, "shouting slogans and waving their placards, several dozen protesters were able to break through lines of uniformed police officers and marched all the way to the gate of the embassy compound, where about 100 paramilitary Armed Police soldiers with shields but no riot gear, and plainclothes agents, had formed a last line of protection." No serious clashes are reported to have broken out.
Some of the protesters wore t-shirts with slogans "bless MH370", and held placards reading "Malaysia Airlines, you owe us an explanation" and "we want the truth". They shouted "Corrupt Malaysian government," "Liars!" in anger as they marched, with one man claiming "the Malaysian government, Malaysian Airlines and the Malaysian armed forces are the real murderers who have killed our loved ones".
In a statement from the Chinese Family Committee, relatives heavily condemned the reaction of the Malaysian government throughout the crisis. "From March 8 when they announced that MH370 lost contact to today, 18 days have passed during which the Malaysian government and military constantly tried to delay, deceive the passengers' families and cheat the whole world," the statement read. There is widespread belief by the families that the government deliberately held back information and delayed search procedures.
Zheng Xi, a thirtysomething woman from Nanjing who had two relatives on board, told reporters: "Malaysia knew what happened to the plane, they knew all along but they wanted to act like they didn't. They wanted to divert people's attention and get as many countries involved as possible and then tell people that the plane was lost in the world's most remote location".
It may take years to find the plane's black box, which would shed some light on what happened to flight 370.
[Image via SCMP]
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