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Parents of children killed in MH17 crash say living in ‘hell beyond hell’

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The family of three Australian children killed on board Malaysia Airlines flight​ MH17 has described how they are living in a “hell beyond hell” as they struggle to deal with their loss.

Mo, 12, Evie, 10, and Otis Maslin, 8, died with their grandfather Nick Norris when the plane they were on went down over Ukraine.

Evie, Mo and Otis Maslin.

In a statement issued through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Anthony Maslin and Marite Norris said “our pain is intense and relentless”.

“Our babies are not here with us – we need to live with this act of horror, every day and every moment for the rest of our lives,” they said.  

“No one deserves what we are going through. Not even the people who shot our whole family out of the sky.”  

Love is stronger than hate

They said they drew comfort from the love and support of friends “because this expression of love is what is keeping us alive”.  

“No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for our children, for Mo, for Evie, for Otis,” they said.  “No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for Grandad Nick.”

The Maslin children were returning to Perth with their grandfather to get ready for the school term after a family holiday in Europe.

MH17, a Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in eastern Ukraine last Thursday, killing all the 298 people aboard.

 


Full statement from the parents:

A message to the soldiers in the Ukraine, the politicians, the media, our friends and family. 

Our pain is intense and relentless. We live in a hell beyond hell.

Our babies are not here with us – we need to live with this act of horror, every day and every moment for the rest of our lives.

No one deserves what we are going through.

Not even the people who shot our whole family out of the sky.

No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for our children, for Mo, for Evie, for Otis.

No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for Grandad Nick.

No hate in the world is as strong as the love we have for each other. 

This is a revelation that gives us some comfort. 

We would ask everyone to remember this when you are making any decisions that affect us and the other victims of this horror. 

So far, every moment since we arrived home, we’ve been surrounded by family and friends. We desperately pray that this continues, because this expression of love is what is keeping us alive. We want to continue to know about your lives, all the good and all the bad. We no longer have lives that we want to live by ourselves. So we’d like to take the chance to thank everyone, all our incredible friends, family and communities, and to tell you all that we love you very much. 

We would also like to thank the people at DFAT; the local coordinator Claire and most sincerely, Diana and Adrian from The Hague, without whom we would not be here. We ask the media to respect the privacy of our family and friends – pain is not a story. 

Yours truly,
Anthony Maslin & Marite Norris.

 


Source: Xinhua

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