Updated: 08 May 2012 04:06 | By pa.press.net
Massacre inquiry legal bid to begin
Lim Ah Yin recalls the killings in Batang Kali in 1948
A High Court challenge of the Government's refusal to hold a formal investigation into a massacre of Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops in 1948 is set to start.
A lawyer representing relatives of the victims claims successive UK governments covered up the killings of the 24 unarmed Malaysian rubber plantation workers.
At a two-day judicial review hearing, the victims' families will challenge the current Government's refusal last November to hold a formal investigation into the massacre.
The incident, involving a platoon of Scots Guards, happened on December 12 1948, while British troops were conducting military operations to combat the post-Second World War Communist insurgency of the Malayan Emergency. Soldiers surrounded the rubber estate at Sungai Rimoh in Batang Kali and shot dead 24 people before setting light to the village.
Commentators have described it as one of the most controversial incidents in British military history. It has also been referred to as "Britain's My Lai massacre".
John Halford, one of the families' UK-based lawyers, said: "What happened at Batang Kali was an extremely serious human rights abuse on any view at all. It was a massacre of 24 unarmed people who weren't in any sense combatants, weren't offering any kind of threat to the British troops who killed them. That in itself is serious enough, but what then followed was a cover-up that has basically lasted the following 60 years to this day, where the British Government has denied that anything untoward happened at all."
Mr Halford said the official account of what happened was that the victims were attempting to escape when they were shot and "brought their deaths upon themselves". He added: "The truth is that these people were killed ruthlessly in a series of what can only be described as executions by British troops, probably in reprisal for things that had happened earlier on in the Malayan Emergency, even though those killed weren't responsible in any way for that. What's happened ever since is that officials - essentially British officials - have conspired to maintain the official account and suppress that very basic truth that these killings were unlawful and could never be justified."
Former British defence secretary Denis Healey instructed Scotland Yard to set up a special task team to investigate the matter while Labour was in power, but an incoming Conservative government dropped it in 1970 due to an ostensible lack of evidence.
Mr Halford said the reason for the termination of the inquiry would be revealed in the High Court hearing, which the families hope will lead to a public inquiry. The case will be heard by Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench Division, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman said: "This event happened over 60 years ago. Accounts of what happened conflict and virtually all the witnesses are dead. In these circumstances it is very unlikely that a public inquiry could come up with recommendations which would help to prevent any recurrence. The families of those who died have chosen to take legal action to challenge this decision and so it would be inappropriate to comment further now legal proceedings are under way."
A High Court challenge of the Government's refusal to hold a formal investigation into a massacre of Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops in 1948 is set to start.
A lawyer representing relatives of the victims claims successive UK governments covered up the killings of the 24 unarmed Malaysian rubber plantation workers.
At a two-day judicial review hearing, the victims' families will challenge the current Government's refusal last November to hold a formal investigation into the massacre.
The incident, involving a platoon of Scots Guards, happened on December 12 1948, while British troops were conducting military operations to combat the post-Second World War Communist insurgency of the Malayan Emergency. Soldiers surrounded the rubber estate at Sungai Rimoh in Batang Kali and shot dead 24 people before setting light to the village.
Commentators have described it as one of the most controversial incidents in British military history. It has also been referred to as "Britain's My Lai massacre".
John Halford, one of the families' UK-based lawyers, said: "What happened at Batang Kali was an extremely serious human rights abuse on any view at all. It was a massacre of 24 unarmed people who weren't in any sense combatants, weren't offering any kind of threat to the British troops who killed them. That in itself is serious enough, but what then followed was a cover-up that has basically lasted the following 60 years to this day, where the British Government has denied that anything untoward happened at all."
Mr Halford said the official account of what happened was that the victims were attempting to escape when they were shot and "brought their deaths upon themselves". He added: "The truth is that these people were killed ruthlessly in a series of what can only be described as executions by British troops, probably in reprisal for things that had happened earlier on in the Malayan Emergency, even though those killed weren't responsible in any way for that. What's happened ever since is that officials - essentially British officials - have conspired to maintain the official account and suppress that very basic truth that these killings were unlawful and could never be justified."
Former British defence secretary Denis Healey instructed Scotland Yard to set up a special task team to investigate the matter while Labour was in power, but an incoming Conservative government dropped it in 1970 due to an ostensible lack of evidence.
Mr Halford said the reason for the termination of the inquiry would be revealed in the High Court hearing, which the families hope will lead to a public inquiry. The case will be heard by Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench Division, sitting with Mr Justice Treacy.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman said: "This event happened over 60 years ago. Accounts of what happened conflict and virtually all the witnesses are dead. In these circumstances it is very unlikely that a public inquiry could come up with recommendations which would help to prevent any recurrence. The families of those who died have chosen to take legal action to challenge this decision and so it would be inappropriate to comment further now legal proceedings are under way."