Malaysia 'confident' country has no more migrant graves

By P Prem Kumar

KUALA LUMPUR

Days after Malaysia discovered nearly 140 graves housing the remains of human trafficking victims, the country's police chief has said he is confident that no more such burial sites will be found in Malaysian soil.

Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters Wednesday that comprehensive screening had been carried out at the town in which the gravesites - thought to contain Rohingya Muslim and Bangladeshi trafficking victims - were found, and along the Malaysia-Thai border on which it lies.

"We did not detect any trace of similar activity at the border line or its surroundings. We are confident there are no other graves," he told reporters in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

On Monday, Bakar announced the discovery of 139 gravesites - some believed to hold more than one body - at 28 human trafficking camps in Padang Besar.

On May 1, the bodies of more than 30 of the migrants were discovered in southern Thailand, prompting a crackdown that led to smugglers fleeing and boatloads of the migrants then turning up on Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian shores, while thousands more remained at sea.

Padang Besar is believed to have served as a resting point for traffickers transporting the migrants by boat from Myanmar - most of them Muslim Rohingya - and Bangladesh.

Bakar said that security forces usually did not patrol the hilly area, but began to focus there after Thai police found the gravesites across the border and began exchanging intelligence with Malaysian counterparts.

A director at the Internal Security and Public Order Department told reporters that the only body recovered from the area where 139 suspected graves were found in northern Perlis state was yet to be exhumed. 

Muhammad Fuad Abu Zarim said that the remains were discovered in a hut.

The discovery came after denials by government officials of Malaysian involvement in the people smuggling ring, which has helped trigger a regional crisis.

On May 5, Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told Anadolu Agency that there was no evidence to indicate the involvement of any of the country's nationals.

"We are still waiting for details of the raid. Until the details reach us, we cannot make any conclusions," he said, referring to the May 1 raid by Thai authorities at the camp in a remote jungle in southern Thailand.

But on Tuesday, Malaysian involvement was confirmed.

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that initial investigations found that Malaysian enforcement officers had collaborated with traffickers with international links spanning Thailand, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

“We suspect some of them. We are also working with the Forestry Department, in terms of enforcement at the boundary between Thailand and Malaysia,” he told reporters.

"They [forestry department] are supposed to enforce the area... But, I still need to discuss this matter with the minister concerned,” he said, adding that police would be arresting some suspects. He, however, declined to name any.

Police chief Bakar said Wednesday that Malaysian police would be holding talks with their Thai counterparts to facilitate an approach to the mass graves in Padang Besar from the other side of the border.

He said access via the Malaysian border had been hampered by the rough terrain in the area and rainy weather.

"We are in the midst of negotiating with Thailand to use a route there to access the site using vehicles and to bring out whatever we will find on location."

"Today my officer will go to Sadao and discuss with the Thai authorities," he added.