MP to government: Reveal hidden hands behind Wang Kelian deaths

PETALING JAYA: The DAP MP for Batu Kawan Kasthuri Patto today called on the government to reveal the Malaysian syndicate suspected of being responsible for the human trafficking death camps in Wang Kelian at the Perlis-Thailand border.

She said the identity of the syndicate’s members, whether “ikan bilis or sharks”, must be exposed without fear or favour.

If the government failed to do so, then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should resign “for blatantly protecting human traffickers”, she said in a statement.

The mass graves, containing the remains of 139 people believed to be Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, were discovered in 2015, causing international outrage.

The then Perlis police chief SAC Shafie Ismail claimed that “no elements of foul play were found in the post-mortem conducted on 26 human remains found at the Wang Kelian camps” and that the cases were classified as “sudden deaths”.

However, an investigation by the New Straits Times Special Probes Team into the mass graves in Wang Kelian claimed to have found “startling new evidence, which suggests a massive, coordinated cover-up”.

“One of the biggest revelations was that the human trafficking death camps had been discovered months earlier, but police only announced the discovery on May 25 (in 2015),” a report in the daily published last Wednesday said.

Following the newspaper’s report, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan said the file on the Wang Kelian human trafficking tragedy remained open and any new leads in the case would be investigated.

Kasthuri said the government had been secretive about the investigations into the “hidden hands involved in the barbarity”.

“Credit must be given to the New Straits Times Special Probes Team’s exposé which revealed that there was more than meets the eye in the Wang Kelian death camps.

“Home Minister Datuk Zahid Hamidi has been deflecting reports and allegations with no substantive or concrete answers and responses from 2015 after the unearthing of the mass graves … to the point that journalists were compelled to take matters into their own hands and probe this very shocking, outrageous and shameful case.

“I call upon Zahid as well as the former IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to reveal the Malaysian syndicate that sacrificed 139 innocent lives.

“Inaction on the part of the home minister is a direct admission of guilt to being accessory to the trafficking ring and the possible massacre of the victims found in Wang Kelian,” said Kasthuri. -FMT