Penang's house of horrors,

where Myanmar nationals were

murdered,

looks like ordinary house

Many were murdered and

chopped here in revenge killings

Published on Dec 07, 2014

Bukit Mertajam (Penang) - It looks like any ordinary single- storey house in a working class neighbourhood. But this little house in Kampung Pisang in the Machang Bubok area on mainland Penang has a horror story to tell.

This was where Myanmar nationals were murdered and dismembered in brutal revenge killings. Machang Bubok is located near Bukit Mertajam town, to the east of the old Penang Bridge.

Police have raided the house, which is located in a wooded area, and sealed it, The Star newspaper said yesterday.

Bloodstains were found in the house, although the murderers had given it a wash and had the walls repainted.

The killers, who had rented the place, had returned the house keys to the unsuspecting owner.

Police have arrested 17 Myanmar men over the past two weeks on suspicion of being involved in the murders.

A total of 18 Myanmar nationals have been killed this year, and many had their bodies chopped up.

Another 10 bodies remain unidentified and could also be from Myanmar.

All the murders are believed by police to have taken place on mainland Penang, and the bodies, or parts of bodies, scattered in plantations and other remote areas.

The 28 killings were part of 51 murders that took place in Penang this year, Malay Mail Online news reported last Friday. Eighteen of the victims were Malaysians.

The big number of murder cases in Penang involving many Myanmar nationals had alarmed the public, who wondered whether a serial killer was on the loose.

There was also speculation that the murders were linked to events in Myanmar, where nationalist Buddhists had attacked and killed Myanmar Muslims and the stateless Muslim Rohingyas from Rakhine state.

"We can tell from the way the victims died... it was revenge they brought here from their country," Penang police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by Malay Mail Online.

"The assailants did not use firearms in their killings. They used machetes to chop their victims into pieces," he added.

At Kampung Pisang, Datuk Abdul Rahim said it is believed that the last two murders took place at the house, which is now unoccupied.

The murder suspects are believed to have also rented another house six doors away.

After visiting the houses last Friday, Mr Abdul Rahim said: "Police have recovered three long machetes believed to be the weapons used by the suspects."

He added that the house where the murders were committed had been rented by the suspects for the past four months.

"We are still investigating how many bodies had been cut up in the house," he said.

Another two suspects, in their 30s, were picked up on Penang island last Thursday night, taking the total number of suspects detained over the murders of Myanmar nationals to 17.

Police have not said whether all the 17 belonged to one group who attacked other Myanmar nationals at random, or whether there was a leader who directed the attacks.

Police said they had recovered a car, which was believed to have been used by the suspects to transfer the body parts to other locations.

It was reported on Nov 24 that a package containing a human head was found in front of a restaurant at Taman Impian Ria in Bukit Mertajam.

Other discoveries of human parts such as a headless torso, a hand and a left arm were also made recently in other parts of Penang.

The Star/Asia News Network

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/asia-report/malaysia/story/penangs-house-horrors-where-myanmar-nationals-were-murdered

18 deaths in Penang may be linked to Myanmar unrest

Published: 5 December 2014

Police have detained 15 people from Myanmar over a string of gruesome murders in a popular Malaysian tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country, reports said Friday.

Public anxiety has risen in Malaysia's historic state of Penang over the past few months as mutilated corpses or severed body parts have turned up – with at least 18 mysterious and unexplained murders of Myanmar nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state's police chief was quoted Friday saying they now believe the killings are linked to violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.

"We can tell that these are the work of Myanmar nationals. They bring their hatred here from their country of origin," Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail.

"It was revenge they brought here from their country."

He said police were still investigating. The report provided little further detail and AFP was not immediately able to reach Penang police for comment.

Violent clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya – who the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted minorities in the world – erupted in 2012 in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The violence has left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.

With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Myanmar refugees and illegal migrants – both Buddhists and Rohingya – many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges.

Myanmar activists in Malaysia say dozens of Buddhists have been killed in revenge attacks related to the Rakhine violence.

Myanmar Buddhists complain that authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have done little to stop the attacks.

The recent string of killings in Penang – popular with tourists for its beaches, historic capital of Georgetown and polyglot cuisine – has fuelled concern.

Some of those murdered in Penang were found with their throats slit or heads and limbs severed.

The Malay Mail and other reports did not specify whether those killed, or detained were Buddhist or Muslim. No further information about the victims has been officially released.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar asylum-seekers and economic migrants – most of them Buddhists – have made it to Malaysia.

Refugee activists say the flow is accelerating following the Rakhine violence and continued repression of Rohingya.

Myanmar's government views its roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship.

Penang is on Malaysia's northern coast, along the dangerous sea route via southern Thailand that is taken by Rohingya fleeing Myanmar. – AFP, December 5, 2014.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/18-deaths-could-be-linked-to-myanmar-unrest-says-penang-police-chief

Malaysian police detain 15 Burmese over series of gruesome murders

Officials suspect killing of at least 18 Burmese nationals in Penang may be result of revenge attacks over violence at home

Agence France-Presse in Kuala Lumpur The Guardian, Friday 5 December 2014 11.47 GMT

Malaysian police have detained 15 people from Burma over a series of gruesome murders in a popular tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their home country, reports say.

Public anxiety has risen in the state of Penang after the discovery of mutilated corpses and severed body parts – with at least 18 unexplained murders of Burmese nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state’s police chief was quoted on Friday as saying they now believed the killings were linked to violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma. “It was revenge they brought here from their country,” Abdul Rahim Hanafi said, according to the Malay Mail.

Clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya – who the United Nations describe as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world – erupted in 2012 in western Burma.

The violence has led to the deaths of about 200 people and displaced up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya.

With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Burmese refugees and illegal migrants – both Buddhists and Rohingya – many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges. Burmese activists in Malaysia say dozens of Buddhists have been killed in revenge attacks and that authorities in the Muslim-majority country have done little to stop them.

The recent killings in Penang – popular with tourists for its beaches, historic capital of

Georgetown and polyglot cuisine – have fuelled concerns. Some of those murdered were found with their throats slit or head and limbs severed.

Reports did not specify whether those killed or detained were Buddhist or Muslim. No further information about the victims has been officially released.

Hundreds of thousands of Burmese asylum seekers and economic migrants – most of them Buddhist – have made it to Malaysia and refugee activists say the flow is accelerating.

Burma’s government views its roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/05/malaysian-police-detain-15-burmese-murders-penang

Malaysian deaths linked to Myanmar unrest

Published: 6:24 pm, Friday, 5 December 2014

A group of 15 people from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have been detained over a string of gruesome murders in a popular Malaysian tourist destination, and police believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country.

Public anxiety has risen in Malaysia's historic state of Penang over the past few months as mutilated corpses or severed body parts have turned up - with at least 18 mysterious and unexplained murders of Myanmar nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state's police chief was quoted Friday saying they now believe the killings are linked to Myanmar's sectarian bloodshed - where there has been violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.

'We can tell that these are the work of Myanmar nationals. They bring their hatred here from their country of origin,' Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail.

'It was revenge they brought here from their country.'

He said police were still investigating. The report provided little further detail.

Violent clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya - who the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted minorities in the world - erupted in 2012 in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The violence has left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.

With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Myanmar refugees and illegal migrants - both Buddhists and Rohingya - many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/world/asiapacific/2014/12/05/malaysian-deaths-

linked-to-myanmar-unrest.html

MPs urge Malaysia to protect Burmese nationals

The Burmese parliament’s upper house has finished compiling a report on the targeted attacks and killings of Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia, and said it is planning to send the report to the Malaysian parliament.

The report, which urges the Malaysian government to curb the violence and protect Burmese nationals, was presented to MPs in Burma’s upper house on Tuesday—the day after a report in the Straits Times said that another Burmese national was found dead in Malaysia.

The Straits Times report quoted a police chief from Penang, who said that local police officers had found a 34 year-old Burmese construction worker with his throat slit on a palm oil plantation.

During a parliamentary session in September, MP Khin Maung Latt from Arakan State put forward a question to the upper house seeking to know what action Burma’s parliament should take to address violence against Burmese nationals in Malaysia.

In response, the upper house decided to look into the issue. After the resulting report was presented to parliament on Tuesday, upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint told MPs that it will be translated into English and sent to Malaysia’s parliamentary speaker.

Khin Aung Myint also said that if Malaysia doesn’t respond, Burma’s parliament will raise the issue again during ASEAN’s Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2013, Malaysian police detained more than 900 Burmese nationals in a security sweep after at least two Burmese individuals were killed in the country. Many believe that attacks against Burmese migrants in Malaysia are a response to the “inter-communal” violence between Buddhists and Muslims that has occurred intermittently in Burma since 2011.

https://www.dvb.no/news/mps-urge-malaysia-to-protect-burmese-nationals-edit-myanmar-burma-myanmar/45789

Four Burmese Workers Killed

Brutally in Malaysia This Month

By NYEIN NYEIN & KYAW KHA / THE IRRAWADDY| Thursday, July 10, 2014 |

Four Burmese workers have been killed by unknown attackers over the past 10 days in Malaysia, according to an NGO providing the funeral services.

“All of them were attacked with knives but on different dates and places since July 1. The way they were all murdered was similar,” San Win, chairman of the Myanmar Free Funeral Services, a Kuala Lumpur-based group, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. “It looks like they were ambushed. The fourth man, who was murdered yesterday, was just like the previous three: his throat was slashed, his hands were chopped and his stomach had been stabbed.”

Myo Pai, head of another Kuala Lumpur-based free funeral service that assists Burmese migrants, was killed on Wednesday, the same day a funeral was held for his colleague Ko Tony, who was killed on Monday in Penang, some 300 kilometers away. Both were well known among Burmese migrant workers in the country, according to the social worker and family members, who said the two men helped illegal Burmese immigrant workers return to their homeland.

“I could not believe he was killed like that. Everyone loves him because he was a social man,” said Myo Pai’s son Ye Htut Pai. “We do not know exactly how it happened because it was late in the evening, and the police say they are still investigating.

Some suspect the attacks were related to clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that rocked Burma’s second-biggest city Mandalay last week.

“At first, the murders were believed to have been caused by social or financial issues, but many here think they are related to the riots in Mandalay last week. Whenever there is communal conflict, there are more killings here,” San Win said.

He said that last year in May, when anti-Muslim riots broke out in the Burmese towns of Meikhtila and Lashio, nine Burmese people were killed in Malaysia and 15 others were injured.

The Burmese Embassy in Malaysia has been informed of the recent deaths this month, as

have Malaysian authorities.

“After the Burmese Embassy learned about the Burmese being attacked by some Malaysian extremist group, the Burmese ambassador and military attaché talked to the Malaysian foreign ministry, interior ministry and security officials to urgently investigate those murder cases and to take action against the perpetrators,” the Burmese Embassy said in a statement.

It added that the ambassador “urged the Malaysian authorities to protect Myanmar [Burmese] workers from such attacks.”

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/four-burmese-workers-killed-brutally-malaysia-month.html

Two Burmese nationals murdered in Malaysia

By AYE NAI 11 July 2014 Print Email

Two Burmese nationals were murdered in separate incidents in the Malaysian cities of Puchong and Butterworth this week.

While the deaths of the two Burmese nationals – Tony, 40, and Myo Paing, 50 – are not directly linked to the recent Mandalay riots, a representative of a Burmese community group in Malaysia noted that in recent times, communal violence in Burma has regularly been followed closely by revenge killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country.

It is not yet apparent which religion or religions the two men followed, nor whether their murders were in any way related to communal tensions in their home country.

Their deaths come days after Mandalay Division was rocked with communal violence. In Chan Aye Tharzan Township, two men – one Muslim and one Buddhist – were killed by mobs during two nights of riots.

On 7 July, Tony was found dead in Butterworth, Penang. Two days later, Myo Paing was hacked to death by a group of unidentified men in Puchong, about 20 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur. Myo Paing, who has resided in Malaysia for roughly 25 years, had attended the funeral of Tony earlier that day.

According to San Win, chairman of Burmese community group Kepong Free Funeral Assistance Organisation, an eyewitness said that Myo Paing was walking home around 9pm at night when six men drove up on motorbikes and proceeded hack at him with long blades.

San Win said that killings of Burmese nationals in Malaysia following communal riots in Burma has become a regular pattern, and he called on the Burmese embassy in Malaysia to pressure the authorities to arrest the perpetrators.

“In the last year, about nine people have been killed but not a single case was resolved; not a single arrest has been made,” San Win said. “We hope the Burmese government and

the embassy in Kuala Lumpur will pressure the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry to investigate these murders.”

The Burmese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur released a statement on 10 July saying that it had learnt that Burmese nationals in Malaysia were being targeted with violence by some “extremist groups”.

In its statement, the embassy said, “We have met with the relative officials at the Malaysian Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs ministries and security organisations. We urged them to protect Burmese nationals and immediately identify and take action against the assailants.”

Malaysian Home Ministry spokeswoman Fadzelette Othman Merican said investigations for the two cases were ongoing, and declined to comment further.

https://www.dvb.no/news/two-burmese-nationals-murdered-in-malaysia-burma-myanmar/42211

Myanmar Nationals in Malaysia Shaken After

Activist's KillingAttack on Visiting Buddhist Politicians Also Rattles CommunityBy

Celine Fernandez And Shibani Mahtani

Feb. 19, 2014 8:26 a.m. ET

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia---The brutal killing of a Myanmar-born democracy activist here has unnerved Myanmar nationals in Malaysia, who worry that religious tensions back home are spilling into their sizable community in their adoptive country.

Aung Gyi, a Buddhist and member of the Malaysia chapter of 88 Generation & New Generation Society—a prominent group pushing for further democratic reforms in Myanmar—was found dead Feb. 4, police said. His body had been stuffed in the trunk of an abandoned car, they said. An autopsy report showed he had been stabbed in the neck and face by a screwdriver, attacked with a heavy object--possibly a brick or club--and punched several times.

That same week, two Buddhist politicians from Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state escaped unharmed after a drive-by shooting while visiting Kuala Lumpur, in what police described as a likely assassination attempt.

Aye Maung, a legislator, and Aye Thar Aung, president of the Arakan League for Democracy—a group that champions the rights of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists—said in a

news conference that they believe "religious terrorists" were involved in the attempt on their lives.

Malaysian police, however, haven't released a motive or identified a suspect in either attack. "No evidence so far" links the two incidents, Mohammed Adnan Abdullah, chief of the Criminal Investigation Department in Malaysia's Selangor state, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The investigation, he said, "will cover all angles to establish the motive" behind the killing of Mr. Aung Gyi, including a possible political link.

Rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar has stained its promising democratic transition, pitting majority Buddhists against the minority group, especially in Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh. More than 150,000 still remain displaced after riots there forced people from their homes and into makeshift shelters.

Clashes have spread to other parts of the country over the past year, killing at least 150--the victims overwhelmingly Muslim.

Security experts have warned that these tensions could spill into other parts of the region, particularly Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia where those sympathetic toward the plight of Myanmar Muslims could carry out revenge attacks.

Malaysia is especially vulnerable to these tensions, with a large population of both Buddhist and Muslim Myanmar residents. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says about 34,368 Rohingya are registered as refugees in Malaysia, along with 7,940 ethnic Rakhines. Also, an estimated thousands of others from Myanmar are in Malaysia illegally or awaiting refugee status.

Most ethnic Rakhines are Buddhist, while Rohingya are predominantly Muslim.

Myanmar activists in Malaysia who are Buddhists told The Wall Street Journal they are increasingly afraid for their lives.

"I am frightened," said Myat Ko Ko, a Buddhist who had demonstrated alongside Mr. Aung Gyi for democratic reform in Myanmar. "What happened to Aung Gyi can happen to the rest of us activists."

Meanwhile, Myanmar Muslims living in Malaysia fear that they could be unfairly blamed for the attacks and then become a target of violence.

"I have never heard of Rohingyas killing activists or politicians in all my life," said Abdul Hamid Musa Ali, president of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia, a group that provides assistance to Muslim Rohingya refugees in the country. "If Rohingyas were that brave, they would have remained in Rakhine and fought there."

Malaysia's top police officer, Khalid Abu Bakar, said at a news conference Tuesday that he is concerned about spillover from Myanmar's Buddhist-Muslim tensions.

"[We] are following whatever is happening in Myanmar very closely," said Mr. Khalid, inspector general of the Malaysian police.

In June, violence linked to troubles in Myanmar's Rakhine state left four people dead in Malaysia and at least 15 injured, all Myanmar Buddhists. San Win, a Myanmar Buddhist living in Malaysia, said he and Mr. Aung Gyi had received death threats afterward.

Mr. San Win said he and other Buddhists in Malaysia feel "vulnerable" following the

killing of his friend.

In May, several Indonesians were arrested for plotting to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta. Suspects in the case later admitted to planning an attack, saying they wanted to avenge the killings of fellow Muslims in Myanmar. Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims.

Write to Celine Fernandez at Celine.Fernandez@wsj.com and Shibani Mahtani at shibani.mahtani@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303636404579392430608479284

Myanmar Demands Justice For Murdered in Malaysia

2014-09-19

Concerns have been expressed over the safety of Myanmar’s 1.5 million migrant laborers in Malaysia following the grisly murders of more than 20 mostly Myanmar workers over the last 15 months, in what observers believe could be killings linked to Buddhist-Muslim violence in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The latest murder involving two workers last weekend prompted a nongovernmental organization to demand that the Myanmar government pressure authorities in predominantly Muslim Malaysia to track down the perpetrators, while the speaker of Myanmar’s upper house of parliament vowed to send a letter to his counterpart calling for clarification on the situation.

Sun Win, the Myanmar chairman of the Kapon Free Funeral Service Society in Malaysia, said Friday that he did not believe police were working hard enough to solve the murders of the mostly Buddhist factory workers, which authorities say may have been ethnically motivated.

“What we want is for [Myanmar] President Thein Sein and his government to directly pressure the Malaysian government to work on these cases—if not, they won’t help us,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“[Malaysian] police announced they are trying to arrest [the perpetrators], but since the first killing in May 2013 … people from Myanmar have been murdered each month and no one has been arrested so far.”

The most recent murders on Sept. 14 involved two men in their 30s from western Myanmar’s majority Buddhist Rakhine state, where bloody communal violence has left more than 280 people dead and tens of thousands displaced over the past two years.

Human rights groups have accused authorities in the state of discriminating against the

Muslim Rohingya community, who they say bore the brunt of the violence at the hands of Rakhine Buddhists.

Sun Win said that his organization had held meetings in May in Malaysia with Myanmar Ambassador Tha Aung Nyun and Myanmar’s Deputy Minister of Labor Tin Aung to express their concerns about the safety of Myanmar’s migrant workers.

“We told them about these problems and they said they had already reported to the Malaysian government about it,” he said.

“I don’t know exactly [why these murders continue occurring], but Burmese people are afraid and worried. Many people are preparing to go back home.”

According to Sun Win, the Sept. 14 murders were discovered after the two men, who were Buddhists, never returned from work in the northwestern Malaysia’s Penang state.

“The people who lived together with them reported their disappearance to the police and then the police showed them the two dead bodies, which belonged to the men who hadn’t returned the night before,” he said.

“They had been stabbed in the bellies and sides, and one had his throat slit. One was Kyaw Tha Hla from Mrauk-U and the other was Kyaw Aye Hlaing from Yathaytoung.”

Pledge of letter

Sun Win’s call for pressure follows a pledge from Myanmar’s upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint to send a letter to his counterpart in Malaysia expressing concern at the number of Myanmar citizens who have been killed in the country recently.

The Myanmar Times on Thursday cited Khin Aung Myint as saying he would send the letter after receiving a report from the upper house’s Human Rights Committee compiling information on those who have been killed, as well as the apparent attempt to assassinate two prominent Rakhine MPs in February.

Khin Aung Myint made the comment in response to a question from Khing Maung Latt, a Rakhine state lawmaker who had asked how the government was responding to attacks on Myanmar nationals in Malaysia, the report said.

In February a Myanmar pro-democracy activist was killed in Kuala Lumpur just a day before two gunmen on a motorcycle shot at Rakhine National Development Party leader Aye Maung and Arakan League for Democracy chair Aye Thar Aung. The Times said that the two later blamed the attack on “Islamic terrorists.”

Earlier killings

In June 2013 several Myanmar migrants were killed in Malaysia following a spike in

violence between Buddhists and Muslims believed to have been sparked by the communal clashes in Myanmar.

Myanmar Buddhists complain that Malaysia's Muslim-dominated police force has not solved any of the murders.

The Times quoted Myanmar’s Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Brigadier General Kyaw Zan Myint as saying that Naypyidaw has no right to interfere with the investigation by Malaysian authorities, and that Myanmar police were cooperating with their counterparts to apprehend the gunmen in the alleged attack on the two Rakhine MPs.

Malaysia’s Malay Mail online reported Thursday that a special task force had been set up by police to investigate the murders, quoting state deputy police chief Datuk A. Thaiveegan, who said authorities were “probing if religious disputes are involved.”

The Mail said most of the killings had taken place around Penang’s Seberang Perai, and that Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine state are the main suspects.

Reported by Nay Rein Kyaw for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/malaysia-09192014161922.html

#MALAYSIA #Police #found #slaughterhouse”

#linked to #Myanmar #murders

December 5, 2014

5 DECEMBER 2014 BUKIT MERTAJAM: Police discovered a “slaughterhouse” at Cherok Tokun, where Myanmar nationals were believed to have been killed and dismembered.

Penang police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said two Myanmar nationals aged between 30 and 40 were detained at the homes in a village last night.

“These men have been renting two units at a village here for the past four months.

“They have carried out the butchering at one unit, and lived in another unit six doors away,” he said when met at the scene today.

Police say that these were revenge killings and was among Myanmar nationals.

On Nov 24, a package containing a human head was in front of a restaurant at Taman Impian Ria, Bukit Mertajam.

On Thursday, residents found a headless torso and a hand inside a gunny sack in a canal at Sungai Bakap.

On Monday, a human head and left arm were found in a plastic bag near a garbage bin at Machang Bubok, near here.

So far, police have detained over 15 Myanmar nationals facilitate investigations into the heinous killings of their countrymen.

The spate of killings and the gruesome find of bodies in many different places of Penang have raised concerns of possible communal clashes between Myanmar nationals.

Police, however, denied there were communal clashes in the community but were merely revenge killings over debt, jealousy and other social issues.

http://www.nst.com.my/node/59524

GEORGE TOWN: Police have concluded that the savage killings of 23 Myanmar nationals, males aged between 20 and 40, in Penang recently were linked to ethnic tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar.

https://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/malaysia-burma-myanmar-23-buddhists-killing-solved/

https://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/malaysia-police-found-slaughterhouse-linked-to-myanmar-murders/

#MALAYSIA #BURMA #MYANMAR #23 #BUDDHISTS

#KILLING #SOLVEDDecember 2, 2014

A police source who disclosed these details said a special task force from Bukit Aman managed to piece together the story after picking up a key suspect, a Muslim from the Arakan district in Myanmar, last week. The suspect reportedly led police to six other suspects who were also detained to assist in the probe into the killings of the 23 Myanmar nationals.

GEORGE TOWN: Police have concluded that the savage killings of 23 Myanmar nationals, males aged between 20 and 40, in Penang recently were linked to ethnic tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar.A police source who disclosed these details said a special task force from Bukit Aman managed to piece together the story after picking up a key suspect, a Muslim from the Arakan district in Myanmar, last week. The suspect reportedly led police to six other suspects who were also detained to assist in the probe into the killings of the 23 Myanmar nationals.The main suspect has since confessed, according to the source, that he had a hand in the

killings.“The main suspect said six of his family members were killed during communal clashes in his home state a year ago. We are now piecing the connection between all 23 cases to see if they were linked,” the source said.“The root of the killings has been identified and we hope to wrap up investigations in the next few weeks.”Penang police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi, in a brief statement, confirmed that seven Myanmar nationals had been detained following the recent rise in the number of foreigners killed in the state.“So far, they have been very cooperative. We have had some developments regarding the suspects,” he said in advising the public not to speculate.

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/12/01/penang-police-solve-23-myanmar-killings/

https://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/malaysia-burma-myanmar-23-buddhists-killing-solved/

MALAYSIA: Three Buddhist workers were savagely tortured, raped, and had their throats cut by a Muslim mob of at least 15 Bengali men, all, apparently illegal

aliens from Burma (Myanmar)Jan72013

MALAYSIA: Three Buddhist workers were

savagely tortured, raped, and had their throats cut by a Muslim mob of at least 15

Bengali men, all, apparently illegal aliens from Burma (Myanmar)

Three Buddhist-Yakhine men working as tappers in a rubber plantation near the town of Alor Setar in Malaysia were brutally killed during the night of December 28. The fourth man managed to flee from the Muslim attackers while they were trying to tie him down with ropes.

Hlaoo1980 “Yesterday at about 11 in the night of December 28 about 15 Bengali Muslims – we know they are illegals from Burma and working here in Malaysia – took three Yakhines onto the nearby hill and raped them. And later they murdered them by cutting their throats. Today December 29, at about 9:30 we discovered their bodies on the top of that hill. These three faced most ugly deaths,” said Maung Than Hlaing to the Narinjara.

Tundra Tabloids Oh, and we have to remember that Malaysia is the country that the apologists label as the showcase Muslim state of moderation and of tolerance. It’s anything but, and any tolerance and normalcy it once exhibited, it gained from outside non-Islamic sources. Now it’s in the Islamization process and the true nature begins to shine through.

The demand for buildings to resemble Islamic structures, will make it that much more easier to take them over, once they’ve finished driving the Buddhists completely out of course.

WARNING: Graphic, disturbing imagesRELATED STORIES/VIDEOS:

oh-boo-hoo-the-myanmar-burma-muslims-are-being-ethnically-cleansed-and-nobody-gives-a-damn

myanmar-burma-first-muslims-intentionally-burn-down-their-village-then-they-beg-the-world-for-help

myanmar-burma-muslims-get-a-taste-of-the-kind-of-ethnic-cleansing-at-which-they-excel

you-know-youve-gone-too-far-when-you-can-enrage-a-group-of-buddhists-this-much

hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-group-of-peaceful-buddhists-scorned

even-the-bangladeshi-muslims-dont-want-the-bangladshi-muslims-from-myanmar

hey-australia-take-a-lesson-from-the-bangladeshis-about-what-to-do-with-all-those-muslim-invader-boats

bangladeshi-woman-explains-to-hostile-british-reporter-why-they-turn-back-muslim-refugees-coming-from-burma-myanmar

if-we-were-christians-or-jews-not-muslims-wed-be-getting-lots-of-aid-from-america-and-the-international-community

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/01/07/malaysia-three-buddhist-workers-were-savagely-tortured-raped-and-had-their-throats-cut-by-a-muslim-mob-of-at-least-15-bengali-men-all-apparently-illegal-aliens-from-burma-myanmar/

Anger Over Attacks Against Myanmar Migrants in Malaysia

Posted 14 June 2013 3:03 GMT

The ethnic violence in Myanmar seems to be spreading in nearby countries.

Some Myanmar Buddhist migrants in Malaysia have been attacked in recent weeks which many people believe are related to the ongoing ethnic and religious tension in Myanmar. According to Eleven Media, 6 died and 12 were hospitalized with injuries during the violent attacks against Myanmar nationals in Malaysia from May 30 to June 8.

Myanmar's Embassy in Malaysia initially dismissed the news which angered many Burmese netizens. Ye Htut, Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Ministry of Information clarified[my] the report:

(We) read the news on the Internet about the clashes near a Myanmar monastery at KamPung and Selayang and that some Myanmar nationals died. (We) immediately asked the Myanmar Embassy in Malaysia about this issue at 5 pm and again at 8 pm via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ambassador said the news was false. [...]

A Myanmar national put 11 red roses in front of Malaysia's Embassy in Yangon in honor of Myanmar migrants killed in Malaysia. Photo – Ye Moe's Facebook.

Wai Lin Oo expressed[my] his frustration with the Embassy's response:

It's actually happening! If you want to approve Embassy's words, just prepare a flight in Myanmar to carry the dead bodies back.

Fang Ran asserted[my] a similar point.

People are suffering. They are just simply liars who don't even go outside the Embassy. And they charge us extreme taxes. I can't even mention in words how

they often reprimand ( citizens who are seeking refuge in the Embassy). [...] When can we depend on Myanmar government? It's really discouraging. Where is respect for human rights of Myanmar nationals?[...]

Myo Set compared[my] how the governments of other countries are behaving when faced with a similar situation:

When a Japanese was killed in 2007 in Myanmar, a Japan Minister came at once. When Myanmar workers had issues with a Korean factory owner, the Korean Embassy suddenly became involved in the case. North Korea cleared away the books about Kim Jong Ill from book shops in Myanmar. What a shame! US came down to Myanmar once there were issues of Yettaw.

Our turn?

In Malaysia, the Ambassador's mouth got a stroke. Ministry of Information is crippled and Myanmar government is paralyzed.

We are Burmese, a community page of Myanmar citizens around the world questioned the silence of NGOs and media regarding the abuses suffered by Buddhists in Malaysia:

When riots in Meikhtilar Township in Myanmar happened, (the global) media and international organizations (like the) UN, Human Rights Watch (reported) about it and some even exaggerated the (situation), labeling it ethnic cleansing, genocide, Muslims in Myanmar are being brutally massacred, or something like that….But why are they silent than normal about the current massacre in Malaysia targeting Myanmar Buddhists? How many lives must the Burmese Buddhists sacrifice further to put the (situation) on pages and screens? Please show the so-called RIGHTS you all repeatedly use whenever you get every chance to make the Burmese Buddhists dishonorable in every page and every screen worldwide.

On June 4, when voices became louder and attacks became more serious, the Myanmar government issued an Aide Memoire to Malaysia's Ambassador in Myanmar urging the Malaysian government to investigate the issue immediately and take legal actions against responsible persons. On June 6, Malaysia reported that 900 Myanmar nationals were detained during a security sweep. Myanmar government is preparing[my] to send a team of special representatives to Malaysia.

Since some of the injured Myanmar migrants cannot afford the hospital bills, the Malaysia Kampung Free Funeral Service Social Team (Kampung FFSS) gave donation to the victims. U Aung Ko Win, President of the Kanbawza Bank who also runs Myanmar Airways International (MAI) donated[my] $50,000 US dollars and cut the MAI air ticket fees of the Malaysia-Myanmar route by 50% for the convenience of migrants who wish to go back to Myanmar. Another well-known wealthy personnel, U Zaw Zaw, who is President of Myanmar Football Federation announced[my] that he will donate 1,000 air tickets for those who want to go back to Myanmar, plus additional $20,000 US dollars donation to Kampung FFSS.

Many netizens on Facebook changed their profile pictures to black to grieve the deaths of Myanmar citizens in Malaysia.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/06/14/anger-over-attacks-against-myanmar-migrants-in-malaysia/

Gruesome Myanmar communal murders grip PenangBy S. Arulldas Published: September 18, 2014 07:13 AM

GEORGE TOWN, Sept 18 — Twenty people savagely murdered in Penang this year are believed to be victims of communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhists from Myanmar.

Police said the latest was the double-murder of two men in their 30s who had their throats slit and their bodies dumped in an oil palm plantation in Kampung Manggis in Bukit Mertajam on Monday.

Police are worried religious and ethnic tensions between the two groups in Myanmar have bubbled to surface in the state with deadly consequences. Most of the victims were Buddhists.

They have been unable to head off the violence due to communication problems with bothcommunities.

State deputy police chief Datuk A. Thaiveegan said a special task force has been set up by police to investigate the deaths.

“We are probing if religious disputes are involved,” he said.

The flashpoint of this violence is Seberang Prai where Rohingya Muslims from the western Rakhine state are the main suspects in the killings.

No one has been arrested in connection with the murders which began in January, although several weapons, mainly knives have been seized.

The reason for the killings are not immediately clear, with both groups blaming each other for the bitter tension.

Police sources said the victims, mostly factory workers, were brutally killed and were found with their throats slit.

A source said: “Six people were been killed in central Seberang Prai in three separate cases while the remains of two other victims were discovered in southern Seberang Prai in the last four months.

“The remaining cases were reported in northern Seberang Prai while several other cases have also been occurred on the island.”

The source said the victims, all men, aged between 20 and 40 were abducted from their homes and murdered elsewhere.

Most of the victims were found without documents and their remains were identified by colleagues and friends.

Police believe the assailants had targeted their victims through their workplace colleagues and had also obtained information on them from members of their community who have been here for years.

Investigations have shown further conflict is at risk and police have asked employers of the victims for leads.

On Monday, a plantation worker stumbled upon the bodies of the two men at about 8.50am. Apart from slit throats, they also suffered multiple stab wounds.

Police believe they were murdered at another place before their bodies were dumped at the plantation.

One of the victims was identified based on his travel document while the identity of the other is still unknown.

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/gruesome-myanmar-communal-murders-grip-penang

Arakanese national killed in MalaysiaPosted on: Saturday, February 8, 2014 14:03 |

( Yangon, 8 February 2014) : Arakanese national Ko Aung Gyi, who is a member of 88 generation student group, was killed in Kuala Lumpur on February 4, said media reports.

Ko Aung Gyi was assassinated on Tuesday evening soon after his meeting with an Arakanese delegation in the Malaysian capital city, reported BBC Burmese.

A former student leader turned political activist from Arakan, Ko Aung Gyi used to live in Malaysia along with his family members for many years.

Mentionable is that the Arakanese delegation led by U Aye Tha Aung and Dr Aye Maung also faced an assassination attempt in Kuala Lumpur but they could escape.

Ma Su Su Myint, wife of Ko Aung Gyi had confirmed the death of her husband after identifying his body in the hospital.

According to Ma Su Su Myint, someone had called her husband over the telephone to go for a place understandably for discussing about business matters. Ko Aung Gyi, who took the profession of a car dealer in Malaysia, accordingly responded to the call and faced the consequence.

Ko Aung Gyi’s body was found with his car next day. His burial is supposed to take place in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

http://narinjara.com/index.php/arakanese-national-killed-in-malaysia/

Four dead as Myanmar violence spills into Malaysia: police

KUALA LUMPUR Wed Jun 5, 2013 4:29am EDT

(Reuters) - Ethnic violence in Myanmar between Muslims and Buddhists appears to have spilled over into Malaysia, police said on Wednesday, with four killings in recent days suspected to be linked to the religious tension.

All the victims, including a man slashed to death by machete-wielding attackers at a car wash in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, this week, were Buddhists from Myanmar, said the city's deputy police chief Amar Singh Ishar Singh.

"We have a feedback that this may be Myanmar Buddhists and Muslims having a

spillover here in Kuala Lumpur," he told Reuters. "In Myanmar, the Muslims are the victims, over here the Buddhists are the victims."

Singh said the police had set up a special task force to deal with the violence in Kuala Lumpur and had arrested about 60 Myanmar immigrants this week in an attempt to control tensions.

Malaysia's Bernama state news agency said the 20-year-old victim was sleeping at the car wash when he was attacked by 10 people. It quoted police as saying a man and a woman also suffered injuries in the attack.

Police did not give details of the other attacks.

Anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar erupted in western Rakhine State last year and has spread into the central heartlands and areas near the old capital, Yangon, this year.

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled from the country to escape the violence and worsening living conditions, many of them making their way by boat or overland to Muslim-majority Malaysia. Malaysia's has allowed them to stay but without giving them legal status, meaning that most struggle to find work or access to hospitals and schools.

The total number of Myanmar immigrants in Malaysia is estimated at about 400,000. The U.N. refugee agency says about 23,000 Rohingyas are registered as refugees in Malaysia, but groups representing them say the real number of Muslim immigrants is much higher and has surged this year because of the violence.

In April, Muslim and Buddhist refugees from Myanmar clashed at a refugee camp in Indonesia in a riot in which eight people were killed and 15 were wounded, media reported.

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Robert Birsel)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/05/us-malaysia-myanmar-violence-idUSBRE9540BA20130605

Four Myanmar workers “killed in Malaysia this month”

in Asean Headline | July 11, 2014 4:38 pm

San Win, chairman of the Myanmar Free Funeral Services, a Kuala Lumpur-based group, told the Irrawaddy on Thursday that four Myanmar workers have been killed by unknown attackers over the past 10 days in Malaysia.

He said all of them were attacked with knives but on different dates and places since July 1. The way they were all murdered was similar, he added.

“It looks like they were ambushed. The fourth man, who was murdered yesterday, was just like the previous three: his throat was slashed, his hands were chopped and his stomach had been stabbed.”

Some suspect the attacks were related to clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that

rocked Burma’s second-biggest city Mandalay last week, he said.

The Myanmar Embassy in Malaysia has been informed of the recent deaths this month, as have Malaysian authorities.

The embassy said in a statement that after learing about the attack the ambassador and military attache military attaché talked to the Malaysian foreign ministry, interior ministry and security officials to urgently investigate those murder cases and to take action against the perpetrators.

The statement added that the ambassador “urged the Malaysian authorities to protect Myanmar workers from such attacks.”

http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/four-myanmar-workers-killed-malaysia-month

Malaysia killings put Myanmar Buddhists on edge

Published: 2 March 2014

Myanmar nationals and Malaysians protesting the killing of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar at the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur on February 14. Mid-2013, at least 4 Myanmar buddhists were killed in Kuala Lumpur, and though the Malaysian police said were investigating it, many Buddhists don't feel protected here. – The Malaysian Insider pic, 2 March, 2014.San Win came to Malaysia seeking political refuge, but now lives in fear of what he and fellow Myanmar Buddhist exiles believe is a pattern of killings targeting them.

Exiled Myanmar pro-democracy activist, Aung Gyi's body was found in a car boot on February 4, the victim of a stabbing, police and activists have said.

San Win and other Buddhists said the killing was one of many and indicates a spillover of deadly Myanmar communal violence into Malaysia, which has a large community of Myanmar migrants and refugees.

"We are very scared. It's not safe here for us," said San Win, head of a group that provides free funerals to needy Myanmar nationals.

Decades of animosity between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's western Rakhine state exploded in bloodshed starting in 2012.

Scores were killed and 140,000 displaced, mostly from the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority, and the situation remains tense.

Fears of a spillover into Muslim-majority Malaysia emerged in the middle of 2013 when at least four Myanmar Buddhist migrant workers were killed in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur in suspected revenge attacks by Muslims.

Myanmar Buddhists allege at least one killing has occurred per month since then, typically stabbings, and complain Malaysia's Muslim-dominated police force has solved none of them.

Police have announced no arrests in Aung Gyi's killing.

'Who will be next?'

A day after Aung Gyi was found, two visiting Myanmar Buddhist politicians were targeted in an assassination attempt on a busy shopping street in Kuala Lumpur, police have said.

Aung Gyi had earlier met the politicians.

Malaysia's police force, which is routinely accused by critics of incompetence and pro-Muslim bias, say they are investigating.

Khairi Ahrasa, a police official probing the shooting, said it was believed to be linked to Aung Gyi's killing, but declined further comment.

Although they have no evidence, Buddhist community leaders suspect vengeful Rohingya.

"It can happen anywhere, anytime. Who will be next?" said Myat Ko Ko, another pro-democracy activist who fled to Malaysia in 2011.

"Previously, Rohingyas and Buddhists didn't quarrel with each other here."

San Win said many Buddhists believed the failure by Malaysian authorities to solve any killings suggests at least tacit official support for the violence.

He doesn't go out at night and rarely goes out alone.

"They can't protect us. They never protect us. There are so many cases, so many deaths that are never resolved," he said.

Rohingya 'scapegoats'

Police have not confirmed the Buddhist claim of regular attacks. They insist all crimes are thoroughly investigated.

Aung Gyi's death was a "very isolated, normal murder case. There is no reason to be afraid", police official Khairuldin Saad said. But he added that police had few leads.

Rohingya leaders reject suggestions their community was involved.

Rohingya were "scapegoats" for the violence in Malaysia, said Abdul Hamid Musa Ali, president of the Rohingya Society in Malaysia.

"For me it's another kind of plot (by Rakhine Buddhists) to justify another round of killing in Arakan," he said, using another term for Rakhine.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrants are estimated to be working in Malaysia, many illegally, drawn by its relatively developed economy and menial jobs shunned by more affluent Malaysians.

There are also 132,000 Myanmar asylum-seekers and refugees, the UN refugee agency says. More than 34,000 are Rohingya.

Many Buddhist political exiles, like Aung Gyi, came during the harsh rule of the military junta that governed Myanmar, formerly Burma, for decades but in 2010 embarked on democratic reforms.

The Buddhist-dominated government views its roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, denying them citizenship.

The UN calls the Rohingya one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Spillover effect

Rohingya have trickled into Malaysia and Bangladesh for decades, but refugee activists say the Rakhine upheaval has quickened the flow.

Abdul Hamid said an estimated 30,000 Rohingya arrived in Malaysia last year.

The troubles have touched Indonesia too.

Eight Myanmar Buddhists were killed in a detention centre in Muslim-majority Indonesia by Rohingya in April 2013.

In January, an Indonesian court jailed a suspected Islamic extremist over a plot to attack the Myanmar embassy to avenge killings of Rohingya in Rakhine.

Surin Pitsuwan, former head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), warned in 2012 Rohingya could become "radicalised," destabilising the region.

Malaysian federal police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar (pic) said recently authorities were "closely monitoring" the situation.

"We do not want any issues there (Myanmar) to escalate here," Malaysian media quoted him saying. – AFP, March 2, 2014.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-killings-put-myanmar-buddhists-on-edge

The Irrawaddy: Pair of Burmese migrants slashed to death in Malaysia – Nyein Nyein

Thu 18 Sep 2014 Filed under: ASEAN,News

Two more Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia’s Penang State were murdered on Sunday, bringing the number killed this year in the fellow Southeast Asian nation to about 20, according to a Kuala Lumpur-based migrant advocacy group.

San Win, chairman of the Myanmar Free Funeral Service in the Malaysian capital, said one man was stabbed repeatedly in his abdomen and ribs and the other victim had had his throat slit. Their bodies were found by police in an oil palm plantation on Monday.

“They worked in a factory in Butterworth town, in Seberang Perai in Penang,” San Win said. “They did not arrive home on Sunday, September 14, after work. Their friends thought they were visiting around, but they did not show up for work on Monday morning and friends started to look for them. When they reported their disappearance to the Malaysian police, the police told them about the two dead bodies found in the plantation.”

The two men—both ethnic Arakanese—were identified by their friends as Kyaw Thar Hla, 32, from Mrauk U, and Kyaw Aye Hlaing, 29, from Rathedaung Township.

San Win said Malaysia police were investigating the case, but had not yet announced any arrests.

“Their bodies have been placed at the Seberang Jaya hospital before cremation,” he said.

Lin Maung Maung, the assistant to the secretaries of the Burmese Embassy in Malaysia,

said the embassy had been notified of the two men’s deaths.

Nine Burmese were killed and 15 others were injured in Malaysia last May when anti-Muslim riots broke out in the Burmese towns of Meikhtila and Lashio.

San Win said since then, at least two migrants were victims of grisly murders every month. In August, a Burmese man from Prome Township in Pegu Division was slashed to pieces in Penang. In early July, four Burmese were killed by unknown attackers in Penang.

Malaysian online media reported that Kyaw Thar Hla and Kyaw Aye Hlaing were the victims of “communal murders” between the Burmese Buddhist and Muslim Rohingya communities in Malaysia.

Lin Maung Maung, however, cautioned against drawing premature conclusions.

“Because the murders happen mostly at night, finding the killers is hard as there are no eyewitnesses,” he said.

“All we can do is remind the Malaysian police to keep investigating.”

San Win said the Burmese government should put pressure on Malaysian authorities to crack the unsolved murder cases.

On Monday, Brig-Gen Kyaw Zan Myint, Burma’s minister of home affairs, was asked by a parliamentarian about government efforts to protect Burma’s overseas workers.

The minister said authorities were “working on the matter,” adding that Burma’s police were working with their Malaysian counterparts on the spate of killings.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/pair-burmese-migrants-slashed-death-malaysia.html

Malaysia says 18 deaths could be linked to Myanmar unrest

POSTED: 05 Dec 2014 15:49 UPDATED: 05 Dec 2014 22:26

A series of gruesome killings in Penang could be linked to the sectarian violence in Myanmar, according to Malaysian police.

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have detained 17 people from Myanmar over a string of gruesome murders in a popular Malaysian tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country, reports said Friday (Dec 5).

Public anxiety has risen in Malaysia's historic state of Penang over the past few months as mutilated corpses or severed body parts have turned up - with at least 18 mysterious and unexplained murders of Myanmar nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state's police chief was quoted Friday saying they now believe the killings are linked to violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.

"We can tell that these are the work of Myanmar nationals. They bring their hatred here from their country of origin," Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail. "It was revenge they brought here from their country." He said police were still

investigating. The report provided little further detail and AFP was not immediately able to reach Penang police for comment.

Fifteen people from Myanmar were arrested earlier over the murders, while two more were held late Thursday, according to police.

Violent clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya - who the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted minorities in the world - erupted in 2012 in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The violence has left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced. With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Myanmar refugees and illegal migrants - both Buddhists and Rohingya - many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges.

Myanmar activists in Malaysia say dozens of Buddhists have been killed in revenge attacks related to the Rakhine violence. Myanmar Buddhists complain that authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have done little to stop the attacks.

The recent string of killings in Penang - popular with tourists for its beaches, historic capital of Georgetown and polyglot cuisine - has fuelled concerns. Some of those murdered in Penang were found with their throats slit or heads and limbs severed.

The Malay Mail and other reports did not specify whether those killed, or detained were Buddhist or Muslim. No further information about the victims has been officially released.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar asylum-seekers and economic migrants - most of them Buddhists - have made it to Malaysia. Refugee activists say the flow is accelerating following the Rakhine violence and continued repression of Rohingya.

Myanmar's government views its roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship. Penang is on Malaysia's northern coast, along the dangerous sea route via southern Thailand that is taken by Rohingya fleeing Myanmar.

- AFP/rw

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/malaysia-says-18-deaths/1511644.html

Revenge main motive for Myanmar killings

By Sandeep Chaurley Published: December 5, 2014 02:08 AM

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 5 ― Revenge over incidents in their homeland has been established as the root cause of the series of grisly killings involving Myanmar nationals in Penang as police arrested eight more suspects this week.

Seven others were arrested earlier, bringing the number of those held for the spate of

murders to 15. All those arrested were Myanmar nationals aged between 20 and 40.

State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said: “We can tell from the way the victims died ... it was revenge they brought here from their country.

“The assailants did not use firearms in their killings. They used machetes to chop their victims into pieces.”

He described the latest arrest as a “major breakthrough” for the force following the slayings of at least 18 Myanmar nationals in Penang since the beginning of the year.

“We can tell that these (killings) are the work of Myanmar nationals ... they bring their hatred here from their country of origin,” he said.

“The latest suspect was detained in Rawang, Selangor yesterday and a remand order has been obtained,” he said, adding the other suspects were detained at various locations in the state.

Asked if the murders were linked to communal clashes in Myanmar, Abdul Rahim said police were investigating all aspects.

Malay Mail had on Monday quoted police sources as saying communal clashes were linked to the savage killings of 23 Myanmar nationals in the state over the past 11 months.

The main suspect, a man from the Arakan district in Myanmar, was among the seven arrested last week. He admitted to killing three of his countrymen following ethnic tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar, sources revealed.

Sources said the main suspect claimed six of his family members were killed during communal clashes in his home state a year ago.

Police later picked up six other suspects based on the phone logs of the main suspect.

The killings were committed on both the island and mainland and the victims were found with their throats slit, and heads and limbs chopped off.

Most of the victims were factory and construction workers. They were Buddhists and knew their assailants.

The victims, aged between 20 and 40, were abducted from their homes, murdered elsewhere and their bodies dumped in isolated areas, including plantations and rivers.

Malay Mail had in September highlighted the flashpoint of the violence was in Seberang Prai where Rohingya Muslims from the western Rakhine state were the main suspects in the killings.

To date, there have been 51 murders in the state involving 33 foreigners over the past 11 months.

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/revenge-main-motive-for-myanmar-killings

Malaysia says 18 deaths could be linked to Myanmar unrest

By Afp

Published: 12:23, 5 December 2014 | Updated: 12:24, 5 December 2014

Police have detained 17 people from Myanmar over a string of gruesome murders in a popular Malaysian tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country, reports said Friday.

Public anxiety has risen in Malaysia's historic state of Penang over the past few months as mutilated corpses or severed body parts have turned up -- with at least 18 mysterious and unexplained murders of Myanmar nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state's police chief was quoted Friday saying they now believe the killings are linked to violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.

• Malaysian ppolice have detained 15 people from Myanmar over a string of gruesome murders in Penang, a popular tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country ©Saeed Khan (AFP/File)

• "We can tell that these are the work of Myanmar nationals. They bring their hatred here from their country of origin," Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail.

• "It was revenge they brought here from their country."

• He said police were still investigating. The report provided little further detail and Penang police were not immediately reachable for comment.

• Fifteen people from Myanmar were arrested earlier over the murders, while two more were held late Thursday, according to police.

Violent clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya -- who the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted minorities in the world -- erupted in 2012 in western Myanmar's Rakhine state.

The violence has left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya, displaced.

With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Myanmar refugees and illegal migrants -- both Buddhists and Rohingya -- many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges.

Myanmar activists in Malaysia say dozens of Buddhists have been killed in revenge attacks related to the Rakhine violence.

Myanmar Buddhists complain that authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have done little to stop the attacks.

The recent string of killings in Penang -- popular with tourists for its beaches, historic capital of Georgetown and polyglot cuisine -- has fuelled concerns.

Some of those murdered in Penang were found with their throats slit or heads and limbs severed.

The Malay Mail and other reports did not specify whether those killed, or detained were Buddhist or Muslim. No further information about the victims has been officially released.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar asylum-seekers and economic migrants -- most of them Buddhists -- have made it to Malaysia.

Refugee activists say the flow is accelerating following the Rakhine violence and continued repression of Rohingya.

Myanmar's government views its roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship.

Penang is on Malaysia's northern coast, along the dangerous sea route via southern Thailand that is taken by Rohingya fleeing Myanmar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2861892/Malaysia-says-18-deaths-linked-Myanmar-unrest.html

Malaysia says 18 deaths could be linked to Myanmar unrestAFP Published: 16:22 December 5, 2014

Kuala Lumpur: Police have detained 17 people from Myanmar over a string of gruesome murders in a popular Malaysian tourist destination, and believe the killings are linked to ethnic unrest in their native country, reports said on Friday.

Public anxiety has risen in Malaysia’s historic state of Penang over the past few months as mutilated corpses or severed body parts have turned up — with at least 18 mysterious and unexplained murders of Myanmar nationals.

Authorities had made little comment until now but the state’s police chief was quoted on Friday saying they now believe the killings are linked to violent clashes between Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar.

“We can tell that these are the work of Myanmar nationals. They bring their hatred here from their country of origin,” Abdul Rahim Hanafi was quoted as saying by the Malay Mail.

“It was revenge they brought here from their country.”

He said police were still investigating. The report provided little further detail and Penang police were not immediately reachable for comment.

Fifteen people from Myanmar were arrested earlier over the murders, while two more were held late Thursday, according to police.

Violent clashes between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya — who the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted minorities in the world — erupted in 2012 in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

The violence has left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000, mostly Rohingya,

displaced.

With its relatively more developed economy, Malaysia is a sought-after destination for Myanmar refugees and illegal migrants — both Buddhists and Rohingya — many of whom bring along their sectarian grudges.

Myanmar activists in Malaysia say dozens of Buddhists have been killed in revenge attacks related to the Rakhine violence.

Myanmar Buddhists complain that authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have done little to stop the attacks.

The recent string of killings in Penang — popular with tourists for its beaches, historic capital of Georgetown and polyglot cuisine — has fuelled concerns.

Some of those murdered in Penang were found with their throats slit or heads and limbs severed.

The Malay Mail and other reports did not specify whether those killed, or detained were Buddhist or Muslim. No further information about the victims has been officially released.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar asylum-seekers and economic migrants — most of them Buddhists — have made it to Malaysia.

Refugee activists say the flow is accelerating following the Rakhine violence and continued repression of Rohingya.

Myanmar’s government views its roughly 1.3 million Rohingya as foreigners, denying most of them citizenship.

Penang is on Malaysia’s northern coast, along the dangerous sea route via southern Thailand that is taken by Rohingya fleeing Myanmar.

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/malaysia-says-18-deaths-could-be-linked-to-myanmar-unrest-1.1422603

Slaughterhouse found in Penang where Myanmar nationals butchered victimsBY LOOI SUE-CHERN

Published: 5 December 2014

Police forensic unit inspect a house at Kampung Pisang in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, today. The house is believed to be linked to a series of murders involving Myanmar nationals in recent months. – The Malaysian Insider pic, December 5, 2014.Penang police arrested two more suspects early this morning in Bukit Mertajam in connection with the numerous murders reported in the state recently and found a "slaughterhouse", believed to have been used to butcher the victims.

State police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the latest arrest of two men aged between 30 and 40 brought the total number of people detained to 17 people, all from Myanmar.

He said police also raided two rented houses in Kampung Pisang in Machang Bubuk, Bukit Mertajam under Ops Kelar, an operation set up about two weeks ago to investigate the murders.

"One of the houses was used as a slaughterhouse. They butchered the bodies before discarding them at different locations.

"The suspects stayed in the other rented unit several doors away," he told reporters at the scene today.

Rahim said police also seized three parang (machetes) found in the house that were used to cut up the bodies, as well as a car and a motorcycle.

He said with the arrests, eight out of 18 murder cases involving foreigners in Penang have been solved.

The cases included the discovery of a severed head in a bag in Taman Impian Ria in Bukit Mertajam on November 24, and a pair of arms and a head found near the Machang Bubuk police station last Monday.

"Throwing body parts near the police station is an attempt to challenge our credibility.

"The people don't have to worry. We will make sure there will be no harm towards the local community. We also warn these foreigners against taking the law into their own hands," Rahim said.

Rahim said the motive behind the killings was related to debts and revenge.

He said based on initial investigation, the suspects, who were mostly labourers and contract workers at construction sites, knew one another back in Myanmar.

"We believe with the arrests so far, we will be able to solve all murder cases involving foreigners soon," he added. – December 5, 2014.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/slaughterhouse-found-in-penang-where-myanmar-nationals-butchered-victims

Penang police find house where

Myanmar nationals were dismembered

in revenge killingsThe Star/Asia News NetworkSaturday, Dec 06, 2014

BUKIT MERTAJAM, Penang - It looks like any ordinary low-cost, single-storey house. But the little house in Machang Bubuk has a horror story to tell.

It is where Myanmar nationals were murdered and dismembered in brutal revenge killings.

RELATED STORIES

• Revenge behind Myanmar slayings

• Malaysia says 18 deaths could be linked to Myanmar unrest

• Myanmar businessman killed by Gang 21 member in revenge

Police have raided the house at Kampung Pisang, in a wooded area off the main road and have now sealed it off.

They found bloodstains in the house, although the murderers had given it a wash and had it repainted.

The killers had also returned the house key to the unsuspecting owner.

Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the last two murders were believed to have taken place at the house, which was empty.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said the murder suspects were also believed to have rented another house six doors away.

They stayed there and brought their victims to the other house where they killed and dismembered them.

"Police have recovered three long machetes believed to be the weapons used by the suspects," he said after visiting the houses on Friday.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said the house where the murders were committed had been rented by the suspects for the past four months.

"We are still investigating how many bodies had been cut up in the house," he added.

He said police picked up another two suspects, in their 30s, on Penang island on Thursday night, taking the total number of suspects detained over the murders of Myanmar nationals to 17.

Fifteen Myanmar nationals, in their 20s to 40s, including the mastermind, have been picked up over the past two weeks in a police operation codenamed Ops Kelar, in connection with the murder of their fellow countrymen.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said following the arrest of the 17, police believe they have solved the murder cases involving eight of the victims.

"We are still in the midst of arresting more suspects.

"The operation will focus on 18 murder cases involving Myanmar nationals in Penang," he said.

He added that police had also recovered a car which was believed to have been used by the suspects to transfer the body parts to other locations.

SDCP Abdul Rahim said revenge was believed to be the motive behind the killings.

It was reported that on Nov 24, a package containing a human head was found in front of a restaurant at Taman Impian Ria, Bukit Mertajam.

Other discoveries of human parts such as a headless torso, a hand and a left arm had been made recently.

It was also reported that there were 51 murders in the state this year, of which 18 victims were Malaysians and 33 foreigners.

http://news.asiaone.com/news/malaysia/penang-police-find-house-where-myanmar-nationals-were-dismembered-revenge-killings