Many of us have been brought up in a system of justice and seen wars as a means of "righting" injustices as in WWII. But recent wars when nations fought for their independence and nationhood, we have documents of downright animal behaviours of armies of the so-called "civilised" nations. The articles below examine some of the war crimes committed by British and US soldiers. Their conducts reflect on their nations indeed. No afternoon tea for me for now!
Batang Kali Massacre - 24 innocent lives
by MKula Segara
http://www.dapmalaysia.org/all-archive/English/2004/jul04/bul/bul2460.htm
....the massacre of 24 men who were killed by the Scots Guards in December1948.
From records available and confirmed by the Batang Kali folks we are told that on 11th December1948 at about 5pm British soldiers entered the Batang Kali village and interrogation began and continued until late night. Then at about 6pm one Loo Kwei Nam was shot dead by soldiers. At 7pm on the same day women and children were separated and locked up in different kongsi houses. On 12th December women and children were taken away on a lorry. Women and children in lorry saw soldiers shooting the 24 men near the river. Thereafter the village was set on fire.
On January1st1949, an official investigation was carried out on the instructions of the then Attorney General Sir Stafford Foster-Sutton. The out come of the investigation was that the Attorney General mentioned that he was satisfied that “the suspects(the 24 men) would have made good their escape had the security forces not opened fire”. Unfortunately this investigations were never made public or sent to the war office. In the War of the running dogs author Noel Baber says “a bona fide mistake had been made”
In 1970 the British government ordered fresh investigations on the massacre after it was highlighted in the media. The investigations were led by Chief Sup.Frank Williams ( who had investigated into the Great Train Robbery). Williams had sworn testimonies from some of the Scot’s guardsman who confessed that “one of the sergeants gave the order to shoot, I fired my rifle at the people at the river bank” “the villagers were unarmed; they were not running away” Williams was leaving to Malaysia to continue his investigations when with the change of a new government (Conservatives now) all further investigations were cancelled. It was officially mentioned that “there was no reasonable likelihood of obtaining sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution” On the contrary Williams team had made it known by then that they were able to gather evidence to prove that the villagers were killed without reason and they were not trying to escape as claimed by the British.
In 1993 the then IGP Tan Sri Hanif Omar encouraged the victims to lodge reports as he said there was “no time frame to lodge police reports especially on matters pertaining to murder”. With this encouragement on 14th July 1993 three of the persons who have information of the cold blooded murder made police reports. A high level police team was set up to investigate this massacre. Also the victims on the advice of the MCA presented a petition to the High Commissioner of the UK which was to be forwarded to Queen Elizabeth to order the reopening of this matter. What has come out of this is still any ones guess.
Two witnesses Madam Foo Moi 87, Madam Tham Yong 73 and sole survivor Chong Foong 75 made police reports and were interrogated by the police. What has happen to the police investigations? Why has it taking the police more then 11 years for a decision to be made on the massacre? The guilty Scots Guards should be brought to justice the soonest possible.
The BBC in 1992 in its documentary “in cold blood” exposed evidence that the British soldiers who were involved in this massacre had actually confessed to the cold blooded murder. In fact the tragedy of Batang Kali is similar to the famous war crime of My Lai which happened in Vietnam in 1968 where the whole village was massacred by the Americans.
The only living three witlessness of this massacre are very old and frail. One of them is on a wheel chair, one is cancer stricken and the final one is having hearing problems.
It is pertinent and urgent for the Malaysian Police to reopen this investigation and clean up the wrong done to the village folks of Batang Kali. The truth must be made public. In fact the government should compensate this victims. The delay since 1993 in the police investigations is most unfortunate. The delay is a permanent scar waiting an over due correction.
The people of Batang Kali must be cleared of all wrong doings without any further delay.
(8/7/2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3897147.stm
Fifty-five years after that bloody morning at Batang Kali, some of the files relating to the incident are still classified. The UK Ministry of Defence says simply that the incident was thoroughly investigated by Scotland Yard in 1970 and that no British serviceman has ever been charged.
However, that police investigation was halted before it was completed and Scotland Yard now tell me that they are now unable to find any records.
Cynics might say that although Batang Kali might be called a "war crime", with few exceptions it is only the losers who are held to account for their actions.
xxx
My Lai: Legacy of a massacre By Celina Dunlop
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7298533.stm
The killing of Iraqi civilians at Haditha has often been referred to as a modern-day My Lai.
The name is shorthand for slaughter of the defenceless, the benchmark of American wartime atrocity.
The murders of 504 men, women, children and babies happened in a northerly province of South Vietnam on 16 March 1968.
Yet, most of what we know about the event comes from a single, widely publicised court martial in 1970-71.
A young Lieutenant - William Calley - in Charlie Company was tried and convicted of murdering 22 "oriental human beings" in My Lai on that sunny morning in 1968.
Media attention on Lt Calley's trial was extensive and the glare of publicity so bright it hid the wider, more awful truth.
Before that trial got under way, the United States army had, behind closed doors, completed an investigation of its own into the events at My Lai, and specifically into the possibility that those in authority had deliberately covered up a massacre.
Convened on 1 December 1969 in the basement of the Pentagon, The Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into The My Lai Incident, known in abbreviated form as The Peers Inquiry, was chaired by
Lt Gen William 'Ray' Peers.
In just 14 weeks, the Peers Inquiry conducted a comprehensive and wide-ranging investigation into the events of 16 March.
More than 400 witnesses were interviewed, and their testimony was tape-recorded.
When the inquiry concluded on 15 March 1970, those recordings were boxed-up, stored and forgotten.
In 1987, they were shipped to the US National Archives, as one small portion of a massive group of records of US Army activities in Vietnam.
There they remained hidden, never catalogued, never investigated, never uncovered - until last year.
I spent many months trying to track down the tapes.
Some of the interviewees' statements reveal the mentality of the soldiers involved in the massacre.
"I would say that most people in our company didn't consider the Vietnamese human... A guy would just grab one of the girls there and in one or two incidents they shot the girls when they got done," said Dennis Bunning.
"That day it was just a massacre. Just plain right out, wiping out people," said Leonard Gonzales.
The wider, more awful truth that Gen Peers uncovered, was that this was an illegal operation, planned and co-ordinated at Task Force level by Lt Col Frank Barker.
It wiped out not one but
three villages:
My Lai, Binh Tay and My Khe.
And not one, but two companies were involved: Bravo and Charlie.
Both of these companies were given the same briefing by their respective commanding officers, permitting them "to kill everything and anything."
"It's not just the people of Task Force Barker that are on trial... It's the Army, it's you and it's me... and it includes our country and our people in the eyes of the world," said Gen Peers, during his investigation.
He concluded that 30 senior officers had been negligent in their duty.
After the inquiry, 14 officers were charged with crimes.
But the only participant convicted of anything at My Lai was Lt William Calley.
xxx
US marines massacred 24 civilians in Haditha
Twenty-four Iraqi civilians, including three women, seven children and several elderly men, died at Haditha, in Anbar province, on 19 November 2005.
The US military at first reported that the Iraqis had been killed by the improvised explosive device (IED) that killed L/Cpl Miguel Terrazas, or in a subsequent gunfight with insurgents.
xxx
The tragedy of Haditha may have been left at that - just another statistic of "war-torn" Iraq - a place too dangerous to be reported properly by journalists, where openness is not in the interests of political and military circles, and the sheer scale of death numbs the senses.
However, the following day a self-styled local journalist and human-rights activist, Taher Thabet al-Hadithi, got his video camera out and filmed scenes that - whatever they were - were not the aftermath of a roadside bombing.
The bodies of women and children, still in their nightclothes, apparently shot in their own homes; interior walls and ceilings peppered with bullet holes; bloodstains on the floor.
A couple of months later, Mr Hadithi's tape was passed to the US newsmagazine Time, which published an account based on the footage.
The magazine also handed a copy of the tape to US military commanders in Baghdad, who initiated a preliminary investigation.
xxx
What happened at Haditha?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5033648.stm
Events in Haditha have been the subject of several official investigations as well as criminal charges against some members of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment alleged to have carried out the killings.
The alleged ringleader, Sgt Frank Wuterich, 28, was charged with voluntary manslaughter while L/Cpl Stephen Tatum was changed with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Murder charges were dismissed against all the marines from Kilo Company, including Sgt Sanick Dela Cruz, who was granted immunity in exchange for giving evidence to the military court.
The defendants have stuck to their initial account, that the dead were either assailants or civilians killed unwittingly in the crossfire.
Their supporters in the US have accused Mr Hadithi of being an insurgent himself, and distorting or actually fabricating the evidence.
Meanwhile, the US-backed Iraqi government launched its own inquiry, saying there was a limit to the "acceptable excuses" by the US military for causing civilian deaths, in this as well as a string of other high-profile cases in Iraq.
A report by the US military in Iraq found that senior marine commanders had been negligent in their failure to properly investigate the Haditha killings, and four officers were initially charged with dereliction and failing to report and investigate the killings.
Two had their charges dismissed by a military court in the US, but Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani became the most senior US serviceman since the Vietnam War to face a court martial for actions in combat.
Home
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Calendar
Register
Profile
Log in
