Malaysia: US envoy to seek probe into mass graves
(File) An abandoned cage is photographed at a camp found in Wang Burma at the Malaysia-Thailand border outside Wang Kelian, Malaysia on Tuesday, May 26, 2015. Pic: AP
THE U.S. will press the Malaysian government for a full probe into mass graves of suspected human trafficking victims in calling for officials who are implicated to be held accountable, said President Barack Obama’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the country.
The nominee, career diplomat Kamala Lakhdhir, made the commitment at her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.
She was put on the spot by Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who has criticized Malaysia’s record on human trafficking and the Obama administration’s decision two years ago to take it off a U.S. blacklist.
In May last year, Malaysian authorities discovered 139 suspected graves in a series of abandoned camps used by human traffickers on the border with Thailand where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma have been held.
The State Department has said the Malaysian government questioned several officials but did not prosecute any ofnlast year for complicity in trafficking crimes.
At least 28 camps were discovered along a 50-kilometer (30-mile) stretch of the Malaysian-Thai border.
The finding follows an earlier discovery by police in Thailand who unearthed dozens of bodies from shallow graves on the Thai side of the border. Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed that one of the graves was found just 100 meters from the mass grave found in Thailand.
The grim discoveries revealed a hidden network of jungle camps run by traffickers, who for years held people captive while extorting ransoms from their families.
This discovery came in wake of a mounting humanitarian crisis in Southeast Asia as tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled persecution in Rakhine state in western Burma.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
