User:Tshase/Malayan emergency
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The Malayan Emergency refers to a guerrilla war for independence fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) from 1948 to 1960; some have gone as far as to characterise it as a civil war. The resulting state of emergency entailed the revocation of civil rights, the granting of special powers to the police, and other measures aimed at the suppression of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), of which the MNLA was the military arm. Despite the communists' defeat in 1960, MCP leader Chin Peng would renew the insurgency in 1967, which would last till 1989, and become known as the Communist Insurgency War.
Malayan Emergency | |||||||
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Part of Cold War and British decolonisation | |||||||
Australian Avro Lincoln bomber dropping 500 pound bombs on Communist targets in the Malayan jungle. circa 1950 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom |
Malayan Communist Party Malayan Races Liberation Army | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Harold Briggs Henry Gurney † Gerald Templer Henry Wells | Chin Peng | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
250,000 Malayan Home Guard troops |
up to 8,000 MRLA (peaking in 1951) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Killed: 1,346 Malayan troops and police |
Killed: 6,710 Wounded: 1,289 Captured: 1,287 Surrendered: 2,702 |
Malayan Emergency was the colonial government's term for the conflict. The MNLA termed it Anti-British National Liberation War.[1] The rubber plantations and tin mining industries had pushed for the use of the term "emergency" since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyds insurers if it had been termed a "war".