Bekas — the Malay/Acehnese word for footprint, spoor or track — was the technical term used by the Marechaussee for the spoor (track) of a person or animal in the rimboe (jungle). The bekas — read by the spoorzoeker (tracker) at the front of the patrouille — was the principal source of intelligence in the colonne method of counter-insurgency: the bekas of the fourageurs led to the bende, the bekas of the bende led to the schuilplaats, and the bekas of the colonne itself — marked by the brigade number cut in trees — could be read years later by a passing patrol.
The spoorzoeker and the bekas
The spoorzoeker (tracker) was the soldier at the front of the patrouille whose task was to read the bekas. The book’s most fully drawn spoorzoeker is Nussy, who with Kamagi and Paliaman “lieten zich niet misleiden” by the listige verberging of sporen. The spoorzoekers of the colonne Schmidt found the first bekas of Peutoeha Gam Masén’s fourageurs near the Kroeëng Seukoeleh — “vonden de spoorzoekers het bekas van neushoornjagers” (rhino-hunters’ footprints) mixed in with the bende’s own sporen, a sign of how remote the streek was.
Warme bekas
“Warme bekas” — fresh footprints — was the spoorzoeker’s most urgent find. “Warme bekas” made “de adem stokt… en het hart slaat even een tikje sneller” — the breath catches and the heart beats a little faster. The warme bekas was the sign that the enemy was close: the patrouille would tighten, the dardanellen would spread out, and the engagement would follow.
The bekas of the colonne
The bekas of the colonne itself — marked by the brigade number cut in trees — could be read years later by a passing patrol. At Leuhong, a soldier had written on 22 August 1912 a note about the 1918 opheffing of that detailchement — still legible in 1934, twenty-two years later, on bekas Marechaussee. The bekas of the colonne was therefore the colonial army’s own historical record: the marked trees and the soldier’s notes were the bekas of the Marechaussee’s presence in the rimboe.
The bekas and the omsingeling
The bekas of the bende led to the omsingeling — the surrounding of a ladang or a schuilplaats. The colonne Schmidt’s omsingeling of Peutoeha Gam Masén’s ladang — “de Amb. sergeant 2e kl. Van Drongelen maakte met zes man een omtrekking en zette de rand af” — was the consequence of reading the bekas. The omsingeling was the colonne method’s tactical payoff: the bekas read, the ladang surrounded, the bende engaged.
Significance
The bekas is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the principal source of intelligence in the colonne method of counter-insurgency. The book’s argument is that the colonne method — small, highly trained patrouilles operating with local intelligence against a religiously motivated resistance — depended on the spoorzoeker’s reading of the bekas. The bekas of the colonne itself — marked by the brigade number cut in trees — is also the book’s quiet marker of the colonial army’s own historical record: the marked trees and the soldier’s notes were the bekas of the Marechaussee’s presence in the rimboe, readable years later.
See Also
- Nussy
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Kroeëng Seukoeleh
- Leuhong
- Dardanellen
- Bivak
- Rimboe
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 22 August
- 1912
- 1934
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De colonne Schmidt” and chapter “De patrouille.”