KUALA LUMPUR (DPA) — Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday vowed to bring to justice those responsible for mass graves thought to be of Myanmar Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants found last week.
"I am deeply concerned with graves found on Malaysian soil purportedly connected to people smuggling," tweeted Najib, who is in Japan for a three-day visit. "We will find those responsible."
Around 100 bodies were found according to first reports, the Star newspaper reported Sunday, indicating that the investigation was still ongoing.
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed that the bodies piled two or three to a grave were discovered last week by special forces near Padang Besar town, 420 kilometres north of Kuala Lumpur, near 17 abandoned detention camps for trafficked people.
Local officials in the area believed the camps had been in existence for at least five years, Ahmad Zahid said.
In Thailand this month authorities discovered several mass graves containing dozens of bodies thought to be of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants just over the border from Malaysia in the state of Songkhla.
The discovery of the mass graves comes amid international outcry over the thousands of Rohingya refugees thought to be adrift in South-East Asian waters.
(Reporting by John Grafilo)
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