Malaysian families seek British justice for 1948 massacre

Malaysian relatives of 24 rubber plantation workers killed by British troops in 1948 began a High Court appeal in London on Tuesday against the British government’s refusal to hold a full inquiry.

The British government said last November it would not hold a formal probe into the Batang Kali massacre in British-controlled Malaya, but the families’ lawyers say there is now enough evidence to justify an independent inquiry.

On the first day of a two-day hearing, Lawyer Michael Fordham told the court the incident was “a blot on British colonisation and decolonisation” and would “shock the conscience of the court”.

British soldiers surrounded the Sungai Rimoh rubber estate in Batang Kali on December 12, 1948, shot the 24 workers and set the village on fire.

The incident, which has been referred to as “Britain’s My Lai” after the infamous Vietnam War massacre, happened during the so-called Malayan Emergency, when British troops conducted military operations against communist insurgents.

The court heard that Britain’s 1964-1970 Labour government had launched a police investigation into the deaths, but the incoming Conservative administration dropped it in 1970, claiming a lack of evidence.

But Fordham said statements given by soldiers to the original investigation showed they admitted unlawful killing.

Britain’s then attorney-general said an investigation was unlikely to result in criminal proceedings, but the detective in charge of the original inquiry had contradicted that statement, he added.

Lim Ah Yin, a claimant who was 11 years old at the time of the massacre, told a press conference in London on Monday that she she heard the gunfire which killed her father.

British troops carried out a mock execution on her mother as they demanded information about the location of communists, the 76-year-old said.

The victims’ families hope an investigation could lead to an apology and reparations.