‘I TOLD MY CHIEF AND WAITED FOR ORDERS’

Officer says he was told to stop probe on March 8 after finding body on March 6

THE police team in Padang Besar, Perlis, was instructed to stop investigating the Wang Kelian human trafficking case in March 2015 despite the discovery of human remains at the Bukit Wang Burma camp.

Assistant Superintendent Junaidy Md Saad, the 11th witness in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Wang Kelian human trafficking incident, said he received the orders on March 8 after he reported the discovery of a body about 100m from the Bukit Wang Burma camp.

Junaidy, who was then acting Padang Besar Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief, described the actions he took.

“I found out there was a human-trafficking camp and what resembled a grave when Assistant Superintendent (M.M.A.) Joeking (the fifth witness) lodged a report on Jan 22. After the report, we decided to take statements from the 38 illegal immigrants rounded up on Jan 19 by the General Operations Force.

“After scrutinising the illegal immigrants’ statements, we found that they had been staying in a guarded camp at Bukit Wang Burma for four days before their arrest, and six of them described seeing what looked like graves. The (then) district police chief instructed us to visit the scene.”

Junaidy, who is now Pendang police Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department chief in Kedah, said he went to the Bukit Wang Burma camp the next day on Jan 23.

“During the visit, we saw the grave. I took photos of the site, drafted (drew) the scene and compiled it in my report. I briefed my district police chief then and waited for instructions.”

He said the following action took place only on March 6.

“At that time, the district police chief led a team comprising CID, Special Branch and forensics unit from the state police headquarters to ascertain whether there were bodies in what we believed to be graves at the campsite.

“At the scene, we found 35 graves. We dug one and found a decomposed body buried about one foot from the surface.

“After the confirmation, we reburied it and ended the operation. We did not bring down the body for a post-mortem as the mission was only to determine whether there were bodies inside the graves.” Junaidy then said he was instructed by his district police chief to stop the investigation after he lodged a report on March 8.

“On May 11, I was summoned to meet with the (then) deputy inspectorgeneral of police in Bukit Aman. We handed over the case to the officers at Bukit Aman — ACP (Assistant Commissioner) Goh and DSP (Deputy Superintendent) Woon.

“The case was then classified under Section 26A of the AntiTrafficking in Persons and AntiSmuggling of Migrants Act 2007. Op Wawasan 1 was launched on May 25, where we retrieved 106 bodies from the graves near the Bukit Wang Burma and Bukit Genting Perah camps.”

He said Op Wawasan 2 was launched on Aug 22 when he received a report from Assistant Superintendent Jamaluddin Shah, the then acting Special Branch chief at the Padang Besar police headquarters.

“From there, we found 24 bodies, of which six were skeletons.”

Junaidy said all 130 bodies were sent to Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Star for postmortem. He added that all the bodies were buried in Kedah.