Apologies and reparations for Batang Kali

Colonialism Reparation supports the request for apologies and compensations of the victim’s families committee for the Batang Kali’s massacre and calls on the United Kingdom to apologize and pay compensation to Malaysia for the colonial period.

On December 12 1948, during the so-called Malayan Emergency, a patrol of the British army surrounded a rubber plantation in Sunga Rimoh by the Batang Kali river massacring all men although they were unarmed (24 people, the only survivor was considered dead) and then setting fire to the village.

In 1949 a first inquiry of the British army exonerated all the soldiers involved.

In 1970 a second inquiry by the British police was aborted for lack of evidence after Foreign Office officials intervened.

In 1997 a third inquiry of the Malaysian police was aborted for lack of evidence as a result of pressure from the British Government.

In 2011 the requests of the High Court in London for the judicial hearing of the Mau Mau tortured by the British army brought to light that many documents of the time were kept secret. As a result, the so-called migrated Archives were made public at last.

On September 4 2012 the High Court in London ruled that it would be very difficult to establish nowwhether the Batang Kali massacre had been deliberate and the use of force by the British army had been disproportionate.

On November 26 2013 the appeal process promoted by the victim’s families Committee for the Batang Kali’s massacre begun.

Colonialism Reparation supports the request for apologies and compensations of the victim’s families committee for the Batang Kali’s massacre and calls on the United Kingdom, together with Portugal and Netherlands, to apologize and pay compensation to Malaysia for the whole colonial period.

ENDS

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