UK court allows review of Btg Kali massacre

After six decades, family members of victims may see closure and some sense of justice.

KUALA LUMPUR: Family members of 24 unarmed Malaysian Chinese workers allegedly shot dead by British troops in a massacre more than six decades ago won a significant court battle in Britain that would give hope the massacre would be formally investigated, their lawyers said on Thursday.

The British High Court ruled on Aug 31 in favour of the family members for a review to a decision by the British government refusing to investigate the massacre, where the unarmed rubber plantation workers in Batang Kali were killed after being accused as terrorists trying to escape during the Malayan Emergency.

The court granted the judicial review as it deemed the case “raises arguable issues of importance”, reports China’s news agency Xinhua.

The lawyers said a full hearing would begin in spring 2012. It will examine whether the British Secretaries of State for Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office acted lawfully when they refused to hold a public inquiry into both the killings and their coverup, and to make any form of reparation to the victims’ families.

“After decades of seeking redress for the Batang Kali massacre victims we can now, finally, see the light of justice at the end of the tunnel,” lawyer representing the victim’s family, Quek Ngee Meng, said.

“We do not expect the British government to reverse its stance, but it should immediately and unconditionally release all documents relating to the massacre and the aborted attempt to investigate in the past so the court that hears this case, and the public, have a complete picture,” he told reporters at a press conference attended by six surviving kin of the victims, lawmakers and dozens of activists and representatives of ethnic Chinese groups.

The 24 ethnic Chinese were shot dead by British Scots Guards in 1948, when the then Malaya was under British colonial rule.

They were accused of being sympathisers of the communists and said to be trying to escape during the Malayan Emergency — a guerilla war fought between the Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan communist group.

The victims’ lawyers said the British government refused to correct the records even as evidence suggested all 24 victims were innocent.

After numerous appeals to both the British and the Malaysian governments for a probe into the massacre were turned down, citing lack of evidence, family members of the victims took the case to the British court.

“For the first time after six decades, I feel a sense of closure,” said Loh Ah Choy, whose uncle was killed before his eyes when he was nine.

“He was my only uncle and he deserves justice,” the 70-year-old told Xinhua.

- Bernama