Batang Kali Massacre

Batang Kali Massacre

December 12th, 1948

The allegation is that 14 members of the Scots Guard stationed in Malaysia at the time massacred 24 unarmed civilians. Subsequently they burned the village.

Initially an inquiry was launched by the British Labour government into the conduct of the Scots Guard on the event. however, the incoming Conservative government dropped the inquiry in 1970.

The only known survivor is Chong Hong who was in his 20s at the time and fainted so was left as presumed dead.

The official account of the incident is that the villagers tried to escape into the jungle having been warned that they would be shot if they ran.

The first reports said the dead ran into the soldiers' guns; later ones that the soldiers gave chase and opened fire.

What is not in dispute is that the 24 villages who died on that day were unarmed. It is also not disputed that no British personnel or collaborators were ever charged for the incident.

This operation was part of the British operation to contain and defeat communism in post-world war two Malaya. It was in this campaign that Sir Gerald Templar first coined the phrase "hearts and minds" as part of a campaign strategy.

In 1992, journalists from the British Broadcasting Corporation's Inside Story to former members of the guard and obtained confessions that they had indeed killed the 24.