PressTV - Malaysians demand UK apology over 1948 massacre

Relatives of Batang Kali victims have demanded a formal apology from the UK government after a London court holds Britain responsible for the massacre in December 1948.



Family members of 24 unarmed Malaysian rubber plantation workers, who were killed by UK troops 64 years ago, urged the British government to apologize for the killings happened during the Anti-British National Liberation War led by Malayan fighters against British colonizers.

They also attacked the UK High Court’s decision not to conduct a public inquiry into British troops’ carnage of Malaysian workers, criticizing the court for failing to order an investigation despite presence of adequate evidence.

The massacre involving members of G Company, 2nd Scots Guards, occurred when British troops were trying to put down the post-Second World War Communist insurgency known as the Malayan Emergency. Soldiers surrounded the rubber estate at Sungai Rimoh in Batang Kali, north of Kuala Lumpur, and shot dead 24 villagers before setting the village on fire.

In a press conference on September 5, Quek Ngee Meng, legal counsel for the next of kin, said his claimants have agreed to appeal against the latest court ruling that there was no legal obligation for an inquiry.

"The legal team will have to decide whether to appeal to the UK Court of Appeal, or go straight to the UK Supreme Court," he said.

"Family members of those killed are now pressing [British] ministers to accept the facts found by the court, take full responsibility for the massacre... and apologize.”

Earlier in May, John Halford, a UK-based lawyer representing relatives of the victims, accused successive British administrations of hiding the truth about the massacre.
Source http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/09/06/260180/uk-apology-over-1948-massacre-demanded/