British court rules in favour of Batang Kali kin

KUALA LUMPUR: The families of victims of the infamous Batang Kali massacre more than 60 years ago have won a significant court battle in Britain and can now hope that the incident would be formally investigated.

A British High court ruled on Aug 31 in favour of the family members for a review of the British government’s refusal to probe the incident, where 24 unarmed rubber plantation workers in Batang Kali, near here, were killed.

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

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

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

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

Lawyers of the family said a full hearing would begin in the spring of 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 cover-up, 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 see the light of justice at the end of the tunnel,” said lawyer Quek Ngee Meng.

“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 a press conference attended by six surviving kin of the victims as well as lawmakers and dozens of activists and representatives of Chinese groups.

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

“He was my only uncle and he deserves justice,” added the 70-year-old man. — Bernama