Batang Kali massacre

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). British author Christopher Hale described the massacre as "Britain's My Lai" in his book titled Massacre in Malaya: Exposing Britain's My Lai.

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, communist and trade union leaders, and the participation of British military forces in headhunting their civilian and MNLA victims.

Background

After World War II, the British returned to Malaya to recover control from Japanese military forces. During the war, the British government had supported the guerrillas who continued to fight against the Japanese forces. However, following VJ Day in August 1945, many resistance units did not completely disband. The groups instead became the foundation for the independence movement against British rule in Malaya. Some guerrillas turned from agitation to communism and began targeting British commercial interests in the colony by attacking rubber plantations and tin mines. By June 1948, escalating violence and the assassinations of several prominent British landowners led colonial authorities in Malaya to declare an "Emergency".