MH370 coverage: Families protest against Malaysian government as long search looms for Malaysia jet
The Malaysian government has come under strong criticism from China, home to more than 150 of the passengers, where relatives of the missing have accused the government of "delays and deception".On Sunday, dozens of angry relatives of Chinese passengers from Beijing met with Chinese embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur, piling more pressure on the Malaysian government over its handling of the case.
Image Credit- Reuters: The Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield is loaded with supplies at HMAS Stirling naval base near Perth. "We arrived here this morning with sorrow and anxiety, because the special envoy from Malaysia, the so called high-level tech team, did not give us any effective information in meetings that took place in three consecutive days," said Jiang Hui, a relative of one of the victims to Reuters.
Relatives seek the truth:
30 relatives of Chinese passengers on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight arrived Sunday in Kuala Lumpur to demand answers about the plane's fate, with some calling for an apology from Malaysia's government for its callous approach.
Image Credit: Reuters: A relative of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 reacts during a briefing by officials of the Malaysian government at Lido Hotel in Beijing.
Twenty-nine family members arrived, according to an official of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a party in the ruling coalition which is providing support for them as per reports by CNA.
At a hotel on the outskirts of the capital, the relatives wore white T-shirts reading "Pray for MH370" and displayed banners stating: "Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back."
"We want the Malaysian government to apologise for giving out confusing information in the past week which caused the delay in the search and rescue effort," said relatives to Reuters.
The search goes on:
Meanwhile, the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
The maps put out by AMSA about possible objects in the Indian ocean that could be the missing airliner MH370
Meanwhile, with the search operation getting delayed, rumours about terror abgle gained credence. Twitter users reacted in different ways to the recent developments:
Malaysia blames Interpol:
Recently, Malaysian ministers suggested that international police agency Interpol's database for stolen and lost passports was too slow for use by Malaysian authorities, which caused delay in search operations.
Interpol lashed out against Malaysia and stated, "The truth is that in 2014 prior to the tragic disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370, Malaysia’s Immigration Department did not conduct a single check of passengers’ passports against INTERPOL’s databases" on its website.
The issue of stolen passports surfaced in the first few days after the disappearance of flight MH370 with 239 people on board, when Interpol confirmed that two passengers had boarded the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, using stolen passports.
Image Credit- Reuters: This device will be placed on the Australian Defence ship Ocean Shield on Sunday and used to help map the location of the sunken wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean
Also, criticising Malaysia's shoddy approach to minimise casualties, Interpol stated that its database takes just seconds to reveal whether a passport is listed, with recent tests providing results in 0.2 seconds.
The report further stated, "Interpol has no idea why Malaysia’s Home Minister chooses to attack INTERPOL instead of learning from this tragedy."
Read the full text here: FULL TEXT: Interpol rejects Malaysia's claims about slow systems; blames its Immigration Department
With agency inputs