Malaysian police have revealed grisly new details of their probe into hundreds of graves found on a people trafficking route, saying some of the corpses they had unearthed showed signs of torture.
While they did not elaborate on what methods of torture had been used, they said that metal chains had been found near some of the burial sites, suggesting some of the dead had spent time as prisoners.
The disclosures came in a police press conference on Monday, which followed the second large-scale discovery of shallow graves in the border zone with Thailand in less than a month. At the beginning of May, the skeletons of 33 migrants were found in a bamboo forest at an abandoned smuggling compound.
At Monday's press conference, Malaysian detectives said that a total of 139 suspected migrant grave sites had now been found in 28 people-trafficking camps along the Thai border.
Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysia's national police chief said some of the graves, found since 11 May, probably contained more than one body, raising the possibility that the total number of dead could run into several hundred.
Forensic officials digging out skeletons from shallow graves in the border zone between Malaysia and Thailand (AFP)
"They are not sure how many bodies are in each grave," he told reporters in Wang Kelian, Malaysia. "The first team of our officers has arrives in the area this morning to exhume the bodies."
The largest of the camps, which were found between May 11 and 23 in hard-to-reach mountainous jungle areas, could have held up to 300 people, according to Malaysian officials.
The dead are believed to be mainly Bangladeshi jobseekers and Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma, where they face persecution at the hands of the country's Buddhist majority.
Thousands are ferried by traffickers through the region each year, but in recent years traffickers have taken to holding them hostage around the border areas until their families pay ransoms for their release.
Human rights groups say that most are in such desperate circumstances already that they have little choice to comply. They have also accused local officials of turning a blind eye to the trade in return for backhanders.
“Clearly this area has been an enclave for these ransom-for-release camps," said Philip Robertson, deputy Asia director with Human Rights Watch, in an interview with Voice of America. "And I don't believe for a second that that could take place without connivance, at some level, by the authorities.”
A Malaysian policeman dismounts from a truck transporting human remains exhumed from the graves (AFP)
Past investigations by the Reuters news agency have shown ransoms demands ranging from $1,200 to $1,800, a fortune for impoverished migrants used to living on a dollar or two a day.
Pictures of the camps shown to journalists by Malaysian police showed basic wooden huts built in forest clearings.
The International Organization for Migration, said that migrants had been roaming in the Thai forests on the point of starvation and suffering vitamin deficiency.
"It's people who are skeletal, they have no fat on their body they're just bones. They can no longer support their weight," he told the BBC. "They are no longer a commodity to smugglers they're an example to others that they have to pay."
The camps were found along a 30-mile stretch of the Thai-Malaysian border and were only hundreds of metres from the graves discovered in Thailand at the beginning of the month.
A policeman and a rescue worker take pictures of bodies retrieved from a mass grave near the Thai border with Malaysia (Reuters)
Mr Khalid said ammunition was also found in the vicinity, suggesting the presence of armed trafficking gangs.
"We were shocked by the cruelty," added. "We are working closely with our counterparts in Thailand. We will find the people who did this."
Thailand has taken into custody or issued arrest warrants for nearly 80 people in connection with the smuggling.
“In Thailand what we've seen is local politicians and police being arrested. That's a first step,” added Mr Robertson. “But they're not getting to the real masterminds, the sort of senior patrons behind these movements. And I'm expecting that we may see the same on the Malaysian side, as well, that a few low-level scapegoats will be rounded up to take the blame for what was happening here.”
