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shogunsft OP t1_irby2so wrote

From Wikipedia:

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During the war British and Commonwealth forces hired Iban (Dyak) headhunters from Borneo to decapitate suspected MNLA members, arguing that this was done so for identification purposes.[85] Iban headhunters were also permitted by British military leaders to take the scalps of corpses to be kept as trophies.[86] However in practice this led to British troops taking the decapitated heads of Malayan people as trophies.[85] After the practice of headhunting in Malaya by Ibans had been exposed to the public, the Foreign Office first tried to deny that the practice existed, before then trying to justify Iban headhunting and conduct damage control in the press.[87] Privately, the Colonial Office noted that "there is no doubt that under international law a similar case in wartime would be a war crime".[55][88][87] One of the trophy heads was later found to have been displayed in a British regimental museum

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