MH370 Chinese families demand body, evidence from Malaysians, says CNN

A grey-haired Chinese national named Wen sobbed uncontrollably as he questioned a Malaysian diplomat in Beijing over the fate of his son and all the 239 on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, CNN reported.

“Mr Ambassador, as time goes on we know that the odds of my son and the other relatives on the plane having survived are becoming smaller and smaller.

"To know that somebody is alive, you need to see them. To know that somebody is dead, you need to see the body. That's all I ask of you," Wen said, weeping as others in the packed conference room of the Beijing hotel also wept quietly in their seats, the report said.

But the visibly uncomfortable representative from Malaysia's embassy in Beijing could do little more than repeat Putrajaya’s talking points.

"There's a team coming to answer your questions. Let them come. Let them come," deputy chief of mission Bala Chandran Tharman pleaded, according to the CNN report.

But he only managed to anger the relatives who erupted into fist-waving chants: "Live up to commitments! No more delays! No more lies!"

CNN further reported that each passing day only brought more disappointment to the hundreds of relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals on board waiting for news about their loved ones.

Malaysia Airlines has housed hundreds of these relatives in a number of Beijing hotels for more than a month and from their improvised headquarters in Beijing's Lido Hotel, the families have set up committees, published press releases, printed T-shirts and hats with the slogan "Pray for MH370," while also coordinating information with the next of kin of passengers from other countries.

Last week, relatives stormed out of the hall en masse after technical glitches left a panel of Malaysian technical experts mute on a giant screen, rendering the long-awaited video conference with Kuala Lumpur a complete failure.

"You're all bloody liars, and you're lying to us again now!" one representative yelled, as relatives marched out of the room, the report said.

A committee representing passengers' families in Beijing has continued pressing its case, demanding answers to highly technical questions that were translated and submitted in writing to the Malaysian government.

Among the information they wanted was the audio recording of the crew's last radio communications with air traffic controllers, an explanation of how many emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) the plane was carrying and whether or not the ELTs activated as intended at the moment the aircraft hit the ocean.

"You need to do it yourself," said a young Chinese physicist on the families' technical committee, who had helped draw up the questions told CNN.

Several days after the failed video conference, Malaysian diplomats were missing from the daily briefings and in their place, a representative of Malaysia Airlines addressed increasingly hostile family members.

Last Friday, he pledged that a high-level team of technical experts would arrive in Beijing on Monday to brief the family members but when Monday came, they informed family members that there was a last-minute change of plan.

"The authorities in Malaysia would like to move forward in the endeavour to address the missing flight MH370.

"While keeping in mind that families have many questions regarding technical issues, the authorities over the weekend put the view that these important questions should be taken up a little later at an appropriate time and place," Bala Chandran said, according to CNN.

But the message was not well received and, instead, for nearly three hours, the Chinese relatives yelled, begged and cursed at him.

"Are you hiding things from us? Are there things you are not willing to tell us?" asked Jack Song, a spokesman for the families whose wife was a passenger, CNN reported.

Wen has said in his tearful speech on Monday that they have not given up hope and believed those on board were still alive.

But according to a psychologist who has been treating some of the family members, hope has become a dangerous emotion.

"That's a dangerous thing when you artificially manifest hope, which in the end cannot be sustained. You are setting them up for a fall," said Paul Yin, a counselling psychologist who also treated victims of Asiana Airlines flight 214, which crashed in California in 2013 killing at least three people, CNN reported.

Yin also reportedly said that the Malaysian authorities bore some responsibility for the crisis.

"So many of the moves that they have taken are just so wrong," Yin had said according to CNN.

In the eyes of many passengers' relatives, contradictory statements from Kuala Lumpur had shaken the credibility of Malaysian officials charged with leading the investigation while a lack of information has led many to suspect a cover-up, accusation Malaysian authorities have repeatedly denied, CNN reported.

The passengers' families also face clear limits that appear to have been set by the Chinese authorities.

For instance, when the family committee announced plans to hold a prayer ceremony for missing spouses in a park near the Lido Hotel on Friday, the service was held in the same conference room.

Dozens of men and women sat cross-legged on the floor, weeping in front of a banner that said: "Honey, it's not home without you."

And after the ceremony, when the spouses marched out of the hotel to the park, they were closely followed by uniformed and plainclothes Chinese police.

They then returned to the hotel after a short speech in front of the park gates.

"It's just like big cage," said 26-year-old Steven Wang, when asked about the hotel.

"It is full of bad emotion... we feel sad and angry and exhausted," Wang added, according to CNN. – April 23, 2014.