Batang Kali massacre

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, an anti-colonial war between 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]