| Batang Kali Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Malayan Emergency | |
 Hulu Selangor shown within Selangor state | |
| Location | Batang Kali, Selangor, Malaya (now Malaysia) |
| Date | 12 December 1948 |
| Target | Defenceless Malay and Chinese men |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 24 |
| Perpetrator |  Scots Guards |
| Verdict | UK Courts ruled that although the Scots Guards had massacred civilians, none of the soldiers would be prosecuted |
The Batang Kali massacre was the killing of 24 unarmed male civilians in Batang Kali by the British Army's Scots Guards on 12 December 1948. The massacre took place in Batang Kali, Malaya (now Malaysia) during the Malayan Emergency, a communist insurgency involving the British Commonwealth and communist guerrillas belonging to the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA).[1] British author Christopher Hale described the massacre as "Britain's My Lai" in his book titled Massacre in Malaya: Exposing Britain's My Lai.[2]
The massacre was one of a number committed during the war that saw British extrajudicial killings of unarmed villagers, in violation of the Geneva Conventions,[3] communist and trade union leaders, and the participation of British military forces in headhunting their civilian and MNLA victims.[4]
- ^ Townsend, Mark (9 April 2011). "New documents reveal cover-up of 1948 British 'massacre' of villagers in Malaya". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Hale, Christopher (1 October 2013). Massacre in Malaya: exposing Britain's My Lai. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0752487014.
- ^ Siver, Christi (2018). "Enemies or Friendlies? British Military Behavior Toward Civilians During the Malayan Emergency". Military Interventions, War Crimes, and Protecting Civilians. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature. pp. 2–8, 19–20, 57–90. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77691-0. ISBN 978-3-319-77690-3.
British efforts to educate soldiers about the Geneva Conventions either did not ever reach units deployed in Malaya or left no impression on them...All of these regiments went through the introductory jungle warfare course and received the same instruction about 'snap shooting' and differentiating between targets. Differences in training do not seem to explain why some units killed civilians while others did not.
- ^ The Other Forgotten War: Understanding atrocities during the Malayan Emergency, digitalcommons.csbsju.edu; accessed 18 November 2015.