Riyaz ul Khaliq
June 19, 2019•Update: June 19, 2019
ANKARA
The probe into mass graves along the Malaysia-Thailand border did not receive “best cooperation” from Thailand, head of Malaysia’s inquiry commission said.
Arifin Zakaria, chairman of Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), said the probe was finished and the final report and recommendations on the discovery of transit camps and mass graves in border town of Wang Kelian will be submitted to the Malaysian king in September, according to The Star, a Malaysian newspaper.
“There are just a few things, like when we wanted to have witnesses from Thailand but did not receive the best cooperation [...] so it’s hard to get the whole picture,” Zakaria was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
According to him, the 17-day inquiry into the mass graves involved 48 witnesses since April 17.
“I think the RCI’s target has been achieved, which makes it easy for us to make recommendations such as improvement to be made in terms of border control security as well as cooperation with the international agencies,” Zakaria said.
A former chief justice of Malaysia, Zakaria said that it was up to government as when to make the recommendations public.
A joint report -- titled Sold Like Fish -- released by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Fortify Rights had found a human-trafficking syndicate committed crimes against humanity in Malaysia and Thailand against Rohingya men, women, and children from 2012 to 2015.
The two rights groups had released the 121-page report after RCI was established to investigate human trafficking and mass graves.
Fortify Rights had said that the mass graves are believed to contain the bodies of trafficked Rohingya and Bangladeshis which were discovered in Wang Kelian in 2015.
“The victims of these crimes and their families suffered tremendously, and these horrific crimes should never happen again in Malaysia and anywhere else for that matter,” said SUHAKAM Commissioner Jerald Joseph.
