Uk Govt Urged To Apologise Over 1948 Batang Kali Massacre

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Participants in a Batang Kali commemoration observing a moment of silence for the 24 villagers murdered by British soldiers in 1948. At the front are: (in white) Tan Kok Wai of DAP, lawyer Quek Ngee Meng and Chong Sin Woon of MCA.
KUALA LUMPUR: British lawyers and Malaysian politicians have urged the UK government to formally apologise over the killing of 24 Chinese villagers by British soldiers in 1948.
John Halford, a British public law specialist, said it would be “morally right” for the UK to issue an apology. Numerous governments around the world had acknowledged their past atrocities despite having no legal obligation to do so, he said.
Halford said UK prime minister David Cameron had apologised in 2010 over the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Ireland.
“Sometimes, the demand of morality can be stronger than those of law,” he said at a commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the Batang Kali massacre.
King’s Counsel Danny Friedman said the British government in 1948 were legally responsible for the actions of its army who perpetrated the killings over 70 years ago.
Friedman argued that Britain was well aware of the rights and wrongs, both legally and morally, when it came to war crimes and human rights, following the declaration of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Trials of WWII war crimes in 1945.
“For Britain to do something about the massacre at Batang Kali would be historically important, but also legally important,” he said.
Malaysian lawyer Quek Ngee Meng said the British government has accepted a memorandum from an action committee on Batang Kali which called for the acknowledgement of the massacre and a formal apology.
Quek said the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office had replied, promising a “substantive response” by this month.
Separately, MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon urged the UK government to declassify and release all historical records related to the massacre.
He also urged the Malaysian government to ensure that the massacre is part of the national history syllabus to educate future generations on the realities of colonial rule.
DAP veteran Tan Kok Wai said that a formal apology from the British government would help the affected family members to move on from the traumatic past.
A total of 24 villagers in Batang Kali were murdered by British soldiers on Dec 12, 1948 on suspicion of harbouring members of the Malayan communist party, which had launched an insurgency campaign against the colonial government of Malaya.
The UK supreme court has previously ruled in 2015 that the British government was legally responsible for the actions of its soldiers at the time. However, the court dismissed an application for a public inquiry to be held.
Supreme court judge Lord Kerr said the overwhelming evidence indicated that the victims were “mercilessly murdered” and criticised authorities for not conducting an effective inquiry.
Subsequent legal challenges were unsuccessful, with the European Court of Human Rights ruling in 2018 that it had no jurisdiction over the case. - FMT

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