Britain's highest court rejects Malaysia massacre appeal

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by relatives of 24 rubber plantation workers killed by British troops in Malaysia in 1948 for a public inquiry into the shootings.

London (AFP) - Britain's highest court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by relatives of 24 rubber plantation workers killed by British troops in Malaysia in 1948 for a public inquiry into the shootings.

Relatives of the workers have waged a decades-long fight for a probe into the so-called "Batang Kali massacre", which occurred on December 12, 1948, during the Malayan Emergency, when Commonwealth forces fought a communist-inspired revolt in the British colony.