KUALA LUMPUR: Another 22 bodies believed to be victims of human trafficking activities were exhumed from Bukit Wang Burma, Wang Kelian, Perlis today, bringing the total to 35 remains that have been found since Monday.
The remains were exhumed from part of the 139 graves detected by authorities at 28 transit camps set up by the human trafficking syndicate along the Perlis-Thailand border.
An uphill task of identifying the victims believed to be of refugees will begin on June 7 when a post-mortem is to be carried out, according to Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.
International assistance has been extended to Malaysia with the United States offering to extend forensics assistance to the Royal Malaysia Police following the discovery of the mass graves.
The offer was made during a meeting between Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in New York in conjunction with Ahmad Zahid’s official visit to the US currently.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, also concerned on the Rohingya migrant issue, pointed that it should be resolved at the Asean level with assistance from third countries and international bodies.
Najib also felt that third countries should play their role by helping to resolve the problem as well as offer humanitarian aid, he said in his blog, NajibRazak.com.
International forums such as Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations need to play their respective roles to resolve what the prime minister described as a serious problem.
Meanwhile some villagers at Wang Kelian today recalled having seen people believed to be from the Rohingya community in Kampung Wang Kelian several months ago, usually in mosques.
One of them, Ayub Mohd Affendy, 25, said he had seen the Rohingya, some of them in their teens, in mosques and that they were shabbily dressed, thin and weak.
“They usually moved about individually or, at the most, in twos,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile the Health Ministry has not detected any serious health cases involving the 1,158 Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees who landed in Langkawi, Kedah on May 11.
A victim of the Wang Kelian camp is live to tell his story when Mohamad Toha Naziullah, a Rohingya ethnic told Bernama that he had to dig graves and bury his own friend who was tortured at the camp. --BERNAMA