Mass Graves In Malaysia

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32005, 4 June 1969, Page 20

Mass Graves In Malaysia

A.-Reuter—Copyright) KUALA LUMPUR, June 2. Four unmarked mounds of earth in the grounds of a leprosarium 14 miles from Kuala Lumpur show the mass graves of more than 100 people killed in the first days of Malaysia’s racial violence last month.

The bodies were taken secretly during the height of the disturbances after police were given special powers to dispose of victims’ bodies—said officially now to number at least 177—in an apparent move to get rid of bodies

quietly and avoid stirring more animosity. The site has not been publicly disclosed, but some correspondents and cameramen recently made a trip to the spot near the Sungei Bloh leprosarium to find five recently bulldozed trenches, four of them filled in.

Rubber gloves apparently used for handling the bodies lay on the ground next to a couple of police identification tags, one of them numbered 117.

A slight stench hung over the site, but it was much less than at the time of the burials, according to one person who helped move the bodies from trucks to the graves. According to one source, more than 100 persons, mostly Chinese, were buried there without ceremony. Near where the trucks pulled up some remains of burnt blankets and clothes, including a pair of women’s shoes, could be seen. So could a canvas stretcher and some unmarked identity tags.