New evidence emerges over Batang Kali massacre

(The Star) – New evidence is said to have emerged on the slaying of 24 local men in Batang Kali during the communist insurgency by 14 British elite Scots Guards.

The new findings were based on an extensive four-year research by former war correspondent Ian Ward and his wife Norma Miraflor for their new book “Slaughter and Deception at Batang Kali”.

The information will be presented to the British Foreign Office and Defence Ministry on Friday by a team of three lawyers representing 13 of the 24 families killed in the massacre.

Lawyer Quek Ngee Meng, who is heading the Batang Kali Action Committee, said the new evidence highlighted in the book would give new insights and perspective into the case based on interviews with survivors, their family members and eyewitnesses.

He said an extensive interview was also conducted by Malaysian police with a local detective who led the 7th Platoon, G Company, 2nd Scots Guards to a rubber estate in Sungai Rimoh, Batang Kali, where they opened fire at a group of unarmed men, killing 24 of them on Dec 12, 1948.

Quek said the British government had also initiated their own investigations in 1970 into the killings had interviewed some the surviving Scots Guards “but due to political pressure, the investigating team never came to Malaysia to conclude their probe and the case was covered up.”

“Finally, after nearly four decades of cover-up by the British government, the investigations can now be put together and concluded,” he added.