Malaysia exhumes 139 migrant graves Thais begin Myanmar air search Buddhists for stranded rally against migrants ‘ migrants’
Hundreds of bodies may be found; crackdown on camps prompted smugglers to abandon victims The government said it was investigating whether local forestry officials were involved in smuggling
Bukit Wang Burma ( Malaysia), May 26: The Malaysian police forensic teams, digging with hoes and shovels, on Tuesday began pulling out bodies from shallow graves found in abandoned jungle camps where an inter- governmental body said hundreds of victims of human traffickers may be buried.
The Malaysian government said it was investigating whether local forestry officials were involved with the people- smuggling gangs believed responsible for nearly 140 such graves discovered around grim camps along the border with Thailand.
Authorities took a group of journalists to one of the camps, nestled in a gully in thick jungle up a steep, wellworn path about an hour’s walk from the nearest road, where a Reuters witness saw the first body removed on Tuesday afternoon.
The Malaysian police said on Monday they had found 139 graves, some containing more than one body, around 28 camps scattered along a 50 km stretch of the border in the northern state of Perlis. Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, told a press briefing in Geneva that the body’s representative in the region “predicts hundreds more ( bodies) will be found in the days to come”.
The grisly discoveries in Malaysia followed the uncovering of similar graves on the Thai side of the border at the beginning of May, which helped trigger a regional crisis. The find led to a crackdown on the camps by Thai authorities, after which traffickers abandoned thousands of migrants in overloaded boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.
“We don’t know if there is a link between the Thai camps and Malaysia camps,” Phuttichart Ekachan, deputy chief of Thailand’s Provincial police, said. “It is possible that because of the Thai crackdown some of the camps moved and some of them ( migrants) then walked over or escaped to the Thai side. It is possible but it isn’t something we have been able to confirm.”
State news agency Bernama quoted Malaysia’s police chief, inspector- general of police Khalid Abu Bakar, as saying that the camps were thought to have been occupied since 2013, and two were “only abandoned between two and three weeks ago”. Mr Khalid told reporters on Monday that police had been “shocked by the cruelty” of the camps, where he said there were signs of torture.
The scale of the discoveries has raised questions about the level of complicity by officials on both sides of the border. Bangkok, May 26: Thailand said on Tuesday it had begun air reconnaissance missions looking for stranded migrant boats in the Andaman Sea, following criticism that regional nations were not actively searching for stricken vessels.
Thousands of Bangladeshi and Myanmar boat people are still believed to be stranded in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea after a recent crackdown on people smuggling in southern Thailand prompted traffickers to abandon their ships or hide in international waters. Thailand is hosting a May 29 regional meeting on a crisis that has seen more than 3,500 Bangladeshi economic migrants and stateless Rohingya Muslims.
The head of Thailand’s Air Force Tuesday said planes had begun flying up to 370 km from Thai territory and would concentrate their search on the waters off the country’s southwestern shoreline. “We have prepared eight aircraft from two units,” Air Chief Marshal Jom Rungsawang said. “We will work in close cooperation with stations along the route that is used by migrant boats,” he added. Thailand’s announcement came as the US confirmed it had begun running reconnaissance flights off the western coast of Malaysia. Yangon, May 26: Myanmar Buddhist nationalists vowed to protest against international pressure on the country to help boat people, a prominent monk said Tuesday, as humanitarian efforts to rescue desperate migrants stir festering anti- Muslim animosity.
The rally planned for Wednesday in Yangon is being held in response to calls for Myanmar to provide aid to the migrants and address the root causes of an exodus. “We will protest against some foreign countries trying to pressure ( Myanmar) to accept refugees as if they are from our country although they are boat people from Bangladesh,” said Pamaukkha, a Buddhist monk activist.
Pro- democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi says she was not invited to an international gathering about the plight of Myan- mar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims. In an interview with Canada’s the Globe and Mail last month, she said that the problems in Rakhine state — where almost all the country’s Rohingya live — are based on fear and perceptions of being a minority. “Those who criticise me for not condemning one side or the other — have never said exactly what they hope will come out of such condemnation,” she said.