(May 27): Police are investigating 12 local policemen for possible links to the mass graves recently found in Padang Besar, Perlis, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today.

Four of the policemen were arrested during the various Op Pintas which began since January last year, while another eight were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), for alleged involvement in human trafficking, said Wan Junaidi.

“We will have to see whether or not there are any links to the camps. Because the arrests were made in the north, we suspect there may be some connection,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

On Monday, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said authorities had found 139 grave sites and 28 human-trafficking camps near the Malaysian side of the border with Thailand.

He said the number and size of the 28 camps found suggested that they may have in combination housed hundreds of people.

The largest could hold up to 300 people, another had a capacity of 100, while the rest could hold about 20 each, said Khalid.

The remains were believed to be of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants.

Wan Junaidi said today the authorities had failed to detect the camps earlier due to their remote location.

He said the campsite was located atop a hill that was too steep to access on Malaysia’s side, and would take three hours to reach on foot.

“It is very remote, and accessibility on Malaysia’s side of the hill is not easy, although it is easier to reach through Thailand’s side. No one expected any activity there,” he told a separate press conference.

He also said it was up to the government to decide whether to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the matter.

But he personally believed that “not all issues” required an RCI, adding that it was now becoming a norm for the opposition to suggest a royal probe into every matter.

During the debate on the emergency motion over the mass graves and camps, several Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers proposed that an RCI be set up for a “thorough investigation” into the matter.

They demanded that the government explain how the camps could have gone undetected for years, and what was being done to boost security at the border.

Earlier this month, the Home Ministry denied reports claiming the existence of holding camps and mass graves.

Its secretary-general, Datuk Alwi Ibrahim, said investigations carried out by the police had found no such camps or graves in Malaysia.

After the discovery of "death camps" in southern Thailand, there have been news reports saying that there might be similar slave camps housing illegal immigrants on the Malaysian side of the border.

More than 1.3 million Rohingyas – viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities – live in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

Fleeing persecution, these refugees usually make their way to Malaysia on rickety boats via people smugglers.

After coming under fire for turning away refugees adrift at sea after being abandoned by the smugglers following a crackdown by Thai police on normal smuggling routes, Malaysia together with Indonesia on May 20 announced that they would no longer turn away the boat people.

Myanmar has also softened its line on the issue, offering to provide humanitarian assistance to stricken migrants. – The Malaysian Insider