Three Rohingya refugees detained in mass graves probe

KUALA LUMPUR: Police detained three Rohingya refugees who were among those held at human trafficking camps in Wang Kelian, Perlis to shed light into a probe on the mass graves found at the site in April.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today the foreigners who possessed UNHCR refugee status were held in Johor Baru on Sunday.
He said although police are checking if the migrants were involved in the human trafficking racket, police believe it was highly likely they were victims.
Khalid said investigators hope to gather information from the Rohingyas on the activities that took place at the camps and those responsible for setting it up.
He said police will also send investigators to Thailand to question an alleged human trafficker who was recently arrested by Thai police and known only as Yassin.
Khalid said Thai police who had made several arrests related to the case had not concluded their investigations on Yassin and others they detained.
In contrary to a report by theSun on June 11 that there were more such camps and mass graves discovered at the Malaysia-Thai borders of other states apart from Perlis, Khalid denied today that police had made such fresh discoveries.
He said that the camps were only confined to Wang Kelian, Perlis and checks showed there were no other activities in other states.
Khalid also said that while a postmortem on the exhumed remains of the dead found at the mass graves are ongoing, findings could not ascertain if the victims were tortured and killed.
"There was just one body that had a broken rib bone but we are unable to tell if the victim had sustained it from assault or a fall. However, based on our probe and statements recorded from individuals, we learnt that the victims were tortured at the hands of the human traffickers." he said after a ceremony in Bukit Aman where he launched the the 1980's hit movie "Bukit Kepong" in its new remastered and high-defination (HD) version.
Khalid said a comprehensive study on the proposal to have the army take charge of guarding the borders of Malaysia was ongoing and every aspect of the plan was being studied.
He said if the government intents to form a new department to maintain border security then police will assist it in providing feedback.
"It is not an easy task to do this. There are a lot of problems especially the legislation involved. We need to sort this out before going ahead with the plan," he said.