Malaysia has found 139 graves with bodies bearing signs of torture near 28 abandoned human trafficking camps, suspected to have been used by gangs to detain Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslim migrants, in the country’s mountainous jungle region bordering Thailand.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said it remained unclear how many bodies were buried in the inaccessible area along the Thai border.
The graves were found in Wang Kelian region where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar were reportedly being held, after an operation that began on May 11.
“We don’t know how many bodies are in the graves but exhumation works started on Monday. We can’t tell yet if they are the Rohingyas or Bangladeshis. We found a highly decomposed body on the ground, believed to have died two weeks ago,” Bakar said.
“(Authorities) found 139 suspected graves. They are not sure how many bodies are inside each grave,” he said, a day after authorities announced the discovery of mass graves.
The dense jungles of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been a major route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya Muslims who say they are fleeing persecution, and Bangladesh.
The discovery by the police has proved claims that there were such trafficking camps on the Malaysian side of the border, believed to be set up by human trafficking syndicates.
The Malaysian discovery follows earlier denials by the government that such grisly sites existed in the country.
Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday said he was “deeply concerned” by the graves, vowing to “find those responsible”.
The police chief said the Malaysian authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Thailand.
“We accept that there are syndicates involved in this and their main aim is for monetary gains. We will investigate, and we will not condone anyone, including Malaysian officials,” he said.
Without elaborating, Bakar said there were signs that torture had been used and metal chains were found near some graves.
He said one of the grave sites was just 100 metres or so from the site where 26 bodies were exhumed from a grave in Thailand’s Songkhla province in early May.
With governments in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia having launched crackdowns amid intensified international spotlight, human traffickers have abandoned camps on land and even boats at sea to avoid arrest.
In many instances, these traffickers have been paid by the minority Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to help them flee to Malaysia or Indonesia.
The traffickers reportedly held them to ransom in the jungle camps demanding more money and in many cases leaving them to die quickly burying them in mass graves.
A few weeks ago hundreds of Muslim Rohingyas were found crammed in boats heading to Malaysia and Indonesia.
Since May 10 alone, more than 3,600 people - about half of them from Bangladesh and half Rohingyas from Myanmar - have landed ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.