on this edition for saturday, march 15th, the prime minister of malaysia says the disappearance of flight 370 was a deliberate act and launches a criminal investigation. the latest on the search for the plane. more than half the passengers onboard were chinese citizens. today the chinese government demanded answers. margaret warner reports from crimea, where a critical referendum will be held tomorrow. and how the crisis in ukraine is seen from the largest ukrainian community in america. >> what this crisis has done is forced people to say, you know, i guess i'm ukrainian, and i guess it means something

politically. >> next, on pbs news hour weekend. pbs news hours weekend is made possible by, louis b. and louise hersh feld. the cheryl and phillip milstein family. roslyn p. walter. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support is provided by, and by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tish studios in lincoln center from new york. good evening. thanks for joining us. there were several major developments today in the story that has captivated the world for the past week, the disappearance of that malaysian

jetliner with 239 people onboard. the prime minister of malaysia said for the first time that the 777 was deliberately diverted and he said malaysia is launching a criminal investigation into the incident. today police searched the home of the plane's pilot. >> we can say with a high degree of certainty that the aircraft communication addressing and reporting system, or acars, was disabled. the malaysian authorities have refocused their investigation into the crew, and passengers onboard. >> the focus of the search which began in the south china sea from kuala lumpur to beijing has shifted out over the indian ocean. odding to the confusion over the

plane's whereabouts, the prime minister's comment that the missing plane flew for another seven hours after contact with it was lost. he said the plane's last communication with satellites placed the plane in one of two corridors. the first stretching from northern thailand to the border of kazakhstan, and the second from indonesia to the southern indian ocean. in beijing today, a foreign ministry official said he's annoyed by the pace of the investigation by the malaysian authorities. >> translator: we urge malaysia to expand the search area, increase the intensity of the search. >> almost two-thirds of the people aboard the missing jetliner were chinese citizens. for more about how the chinese are reacting to the continually unfolding story, we're joined better orville shell at the asian society. how is this story playing out in china? >> well, i think since chinese

were so prepondrant, china feels they have a very substantial interest in knowing what happened. it's curious, because usually china is not the most transparent of countries. but in this case they are being quite insistent, and sometimes even accusatory in regard to malaysia, accusing them of withholding information, of not being very open, and not passing out substantial enough information about what's going on. so this huge fleet of ships and planes that's trying to find the crash could do effective work. >> so how much of this pressure that the chinese government is putting on the malaysian government is coming from pressure they're feeling from all those family members who still don't have information on their loved ones? >> it's turned into a huge drama in china. these chinese families waiting in a hotel in beijing for a week

now, waiting for news. and it's played out all over the country, because this is, at least so far, an incident which does not actually involve china. i think china's fear, however, is that if there proves to be some sort of a hijacking, and should the hijackers prove to have something to do with their own islamic independence movement, and there have been many occasions in the last few months that have erupted in china, and been very savagely brutal, well, this would be a kind of a blow for china, which today it's been able to keep somewhat aloof from any imputation of wrongdoing. >> and how does this impact the kind of geopolitical stability in the region? there are multiple disputes over territories in the region, and how does china want to be perceived in those fights? >> well, china a few years ago was perceived in a rather

friendly and, i think, effective manner. they had declared they were rising peacefully. and countries like the philippines, vietnam and malaysia were, i think, quite soothed by this idea. of late, however, as china has claimed most of the south china sea, and lots of island chains within that great region, that are also claimed by vietnam, malaysia, philippines, and brunei, there's lots of tension. this search for this plane has actually brought at least momentarily everybody together in a common endeavor. this is not something that's always come easily to china, which has always been circumspect about violations of other countries' sovereignty, for humanitarian intervention, or efforts that have involved sort of collective international community. so this is a good example, i think, of china joining such an

effort. but i don't think in the long run it's going to mitigate the tensions in the south china sea. >> all right. orville shell joining us from san francisco, thank you very much. >> pleasure. to the other major story, the crisis in ukraine. this afternoon ukraine accusing russia of sending troops outside of crimea. they said russia deployed 80 troops, three armored vehicles and four helicopter gun ships in a region north of crimea. back here in new york, at the united nations, russia vetoed a resolution declaring tomorrow's referendum in crimea invalid. despite international protests, the referendum will take place. james mason has the latest on the crisis. >> a sight that will delight the people of ukraine, a massive anti-war march this afternoon. not in kiev, but right under president putin's nose in moscow.

the banner reading for russia and ukraine, without putin. it's an extraordinary show of dissent where it's been brutally suppressed in recent months. a russian just out of jail led the speeches. >> translator: the people i see here, these are the people from a different russia, from that russia where i want to live. >> much more worrying were events last night from the eastern ukrainian city of khartiv. two men reported dead from gunshots. who started it hardly matters, it's exactly the sort of incident that could be used by moscow as an excuse to move further into ukraine. the other major city in the east of the country, pro-russians

were on the streets this afternoon in huge numbers. how much of this is organized, how much spontaneous is impossible to tell. one certainty is that it is extremely dangerous. with diplomacy at a stand still, the security council in new york ron demed the referendum tomorrow. >> translator: it is a secret to no one, that the russian federation will vote against the draft resolution. we cannot go along with the basic assumption, that is declaring illegal the march planned referendum. >> the refer dumb will go ahead tomorrow morning. the result is not in doubt. but what happens next is more interesting. if russia uses the vote to make its occupation of crimea permanent, then the talk in the west is likely to turn into action.

>> turning now to afghanistan, where today president hamid karzai said his country is prepared for a complete withdrawal of american and nato troops by the end of this year. in his final address to parliament, karzai said the afghan military is up to the task of protecting the nation. the u.s. has been pressing karzai to sign a security agreement that would leave a small number of american troops in afghanistan beyond this year. in neighboring pakistan, a doctor who helped the united states track down and kill osama bin laden had his prison sentence reduced from 33 to 23 years. the united states had called for his outright release, and a senate committee approved legislation reducing aid to pakistan by millions of dollars because of his conviction and sentencing. pakistani authorities accused the doctor of treating islamic militants. the doctor took dna samples as part of a vaccination program purportedly devised by the cia to confirm bin laden was in the area, where he was later killed

by u.s. commandos. iranian authorities have reported several cases of what they call industrial sabotage, including one at the iraq nuclear facility. in the past, tehran accused israel and the united states of utilizing computer viruses to undermine its nuclear program. iran recently announced the creation of a special intelligence team to fight cyber attacks. in this country, the federal deposit insurance corporation has sued 16 of the world's leading banks for allegedly colluding to manipulate interest rates from 2007 to 2011. they said the banks did so to increase the profits. among the names is citigroup and credit suisse. and the "wall street journal" is reporting the government will extend the march 31st deadline for signing up for health care coverage. the extension would be for those who try to enroll but cannot because of any technical glitches from a last-minute rush.

returning now to the crisis in ukraine. the chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner joins us from the crimean capital city where a key referendum will be held tomorrow. what's the atmosphere like on the eve of the vote that the whole world is watching? >> well, this was proclaimed a day of quiet before the vote, meaning no rallies, demonstrates, speeches. in fact, the day apparently passed without any prove ovations or confrontations here in crimea. but it's totally enforced by russian, and russian sympathetic, russian supporting crimean troops. when we came to the parliament today, to get our credentials for tomorrow, we met cossack

soldiers. the russian flag is flying in the atrium of the crimean building. this is saturday night, and there's a restaurant set up with lights, but there's more russians standing in front of it than kramian customers walking in. when we left town to visit some villages, we had to run a gauntlet of russian-manned or russian regular manned road blocks where we simply let our russian photographer do the talking. >> independent election viewers, tell us about it. you were there. >> well, they did say that these were independent international observers, but when they started speaking to the press corps, they sounded anything but. the first was to speak from the crimean parliament. and said the election was fair, legitimate, and legal under international law. and she went on to denounce the americans saying that the government in kiev was illegitimate, and that whenever the americans called, they

responded. the one american observer sounded much the same thing, from the chicago area, who writes for a conservative magazine said this will usher in a new era to end the global hom oh jenny of the united states. it was ironic that president obama and secretary kerry were defending essentially a decision of a former soviet leader khrushchev to give crimea a way to ukraine, when vladimir putin was the one upholding the right of self-determination. they are going to be running the monitoring operation at all the polling places tomorrow. >> you said there was a sense of uneasy. what are people telling you about what may have happen after the vote? >> they do fear violence. that was exacerbated by reports that in fact russian forces moved into ukraine proper today. north of crimea, to see the fuel dump. above all, they fear violence.

they fear violence coming to what has been a very peaceful part of ukraine, a place where russians and ukrainians came to vacation. and they really fear the unknown. and i would say the people are most uncomfortable, not about what will happen tomorrow in the vote, but what may happen next. >> margaret warner, thanks so much. the images from the news hour's reporting team in crimea. visit news hour.pbs.org. finally tonight, we thought to look at the crisis in ukraine from another point of view. we should emphasize what we found in manhattan's lower east side is more of a snapshot of public opinion rather than a scientific sampling. >> this is little ukraine, a small enclave in the east village of manhattan. there are more than 113,000 ethnic ukrainians living in the metropolitan area. some of them right here.

there's the ukrainian butcher, a bookstore, a church, a museum, and a sidewalk memorial commemorating the dozens killed during recent protests against the former pro-russian government. we came here to see how the ukrainian-american community was reacting to the current crisis. in a small office above a restaurant, we met ukrainian-americans discussing plans to protest the russian incursion into crimea. their goal? to get athletes at the paralympics in sochi to publicly support the pro-western ukrainian government in kiev. >> we can try to get in touch with them through the facebook page, also a lot of athletes, they have their twitter accounts. we can tweet at them. >> maria is the community relations director at a community organization. she's lived in the united states for ten years, but her father and many of her friends still live in kiev. >> a lot of my classmates are there. some of them were injured.

so it's very close to home. >> images out of eastern ukraine show pro-russian demonstrators rallying in large numbers. but alexander, a professor who focuses on russian and ukrainian issues at rutgers university and has ukrainian roots himself, said the east-west divide in ukraine has been overstated. >> what people do here in the u.s., and especially the media, frankly, is they make that fundamental mistake of comparing the two extremes, and then projecting those characteristics on the rest of the country. and it's just not quite the case that everything falls neatly into two black and white boxes. that's really the bottom line. >> he points to a poll conducted in february by the kiev international institute of sociology which showed a majority of the country wants an independent ukraine. even in crimea, the same polls showed that 40% of the population wants unification

with russia. and he says that the ukrainian di aspractice in the united states supports the government in kiev. >> the former president had to go. the democrats have to triumph. putin is an imperialist, he has to be stopped or he'll dismember the country. that's putting it in a nutshell. but i would bet over 95% of everybody who claims to be from ukraine or had some kind of loyalty to ukraine would subscribe to these tenets. >> ukrainians who came here have adopted american values. at a popular neighborhood at a ukrainian restaurant, we met a member of the ukrainian national home, a cultural organization. his father was a member of the ukrainian underground during world war ii. >> they had to fight against the germans and against the

russians. >> he visits relatives and friends in ukraine two or three times a year. the last time was just this january during protests in kiev against the former president. >> they didn't want to have violence. they didn't want to have confrontation. they just wanted to have change, but in a peaceful way. >> when you heard that russian troops were going to ukraine, what does that feel like? >> you feel like you want to do something. but you can't do anything. and you're hoping that you get some support from the world. >> he believes the west isn't doing enough to support the new ukrainian government. jason bashard is a third-generation ukrainian-american. he said everybody in the restaurant is very tense about the conflict. >> the people here, ukrainian-americans feel very angry. there's some sense of people wanting to go home to enlist. to fight.

and we're hoping that there will be a resolution. >> he took us into the kitchen where a beat soup was being prepared, which is considered to be russian. but they say it's actually ukrainian. they say everybody in the restaurant is glued to their phones and the news, waiting for every little piece of information about the conflict. your family in the ukraine, what are you hearing from them? what are people saying? >> i think people are very nervous, you know. my family's from the west. so that conflict isn't happening there, but they're still very nervous. no one wants their country torn apart. >> a couple blocks away from the restaurant, a ukrainian gift shop. his grandfather opened the store in 1918. it's filled with ukrainian art, books and music. he can't believe a crisis like this could happen in the 21st

century. >> i didn't think this is how people behaved anymore frlt i thought that was relegated to history. but now apparently it's okay for another country to just go in and to claim another part of another country as theirs. >> he supports sanctions and travel restrictions against russia. but stops short of supporting military action. >> the thought of just becoming a global conflict with different countries taking sides, that frightens me beyond imagination. >> it was a common sentiment. war is not the answer. it's what we heard from a decorated vietnam war veteran. >> we don't want war. especially military people like myself. as soon as a war starts, ukrainians will die first. >> professor alexander said the conflict stirred the ukrainian-american community like never before, bringing together ethnic ukrainians of different generations and from different parts of ukraine.

>> what this crisis has done is forced people to say, you know, i guess i'm ukrainian. and i guess it means something. it means something politically. join us on air and online tomorrow, we'll have the latest from the crisis in ukraine. margaret warner will join us again from crimea following the referendum there. that's it for this edition of pbs news weekend. that's it for this edition of pbs news weekend. thank you for watching. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

pbs news hour weekend is made possible by louis b. and louise hershfeld coman, joyce b. heal, in memory of marie and emory wallack. ross a lin p. walter. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america. designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support is provided by --

and by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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