A petition will be delivered to the government on Tuesday demanding an "honourable acceptance of responsibility" for the massacre of 24 unarmed rubber plantation workers by British troops during the anti-communist insurgency in Malaya in 1948.

The petition, signed by 10,000 people, will be handed to the British high commissioner in Malaysia, Simon Featherstone. It will demand an apology and a memorial to those killed at Batang Kali and ask for "modest reparations".

The case has been compared to that of elderly Kenyans who have been offered nearly £20m in costs and compensation after being tortured and abused during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s.

High court judges last year questioned the official record given to parliament – that the Malaysians were shot when trying to escape in 1948. Allegations that there was a "deliberate execution of the men and it was 'covered up' by the Scots Guards and British army" could "properly be made on the evidence," the judges said.

However, they argued that there were "obviously enormous difficulties in conducting an inquiry into a matter that happened over 63 years ago".

John Halford, lawyer for the Malaysians, has offered to reach a settlement in place of a costly appeal of the high court ruling due to be heard in November.

"This incident took place in living memory – indeed some of the claimants in the case were present in the village as children," Halford said.

Lim Kok, a claimant in the case, said: "I applaud the moral courage of the British government in admitting the torture of Kenyans and taking responsibility for putting that wrong right. But it is absurd that the very same government has remained mute on the slaughter in Batang Kali, which took away my father's precious life."