Batang Kali Massacre
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The event dubbed the Batang Kali Massacre took place December 12, 1948. It is allegated that 14 members of the Scots Guard stationed in Malaysia massacred 24 unarmed civilians, then set fire to 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. He had fainted, and was presumed dead.
The first reports said the dead ran into the soldiers' guns; later ones said the soldiers gave chase and opened fire. 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.
That the 24 villagers who died on that day were unarmed has not been disputed by any party but this allegation made by the villagers has never been responded to by either the Malaysian or British governments.
British personnel or collaborators were never charged for the incident.
This operation was part of the British operation to contain and defeat communism in post-World War II Malaysia. 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 talked to former members of the guard and obtained confessions that they had indeed killed the 24.
Categories: Massacres | Malaysia | 1948