The Commandementsorder on military discipline of 27 June 1896 — issued on the day of Lt.-Gen. Vetter’s farewell parade at the Petjoet exercise terrain near Koeta Radja on 27 June 1896 on the order of the Army Commander — was the general order reminding all commanders in Aceh of the provisions of Title VII of the Criminal Code for the Army regarding acts of violence and poaching. The order cited Articles 174, 176, 177, 181, and 184 of the Code, restricted the burning of property to instances ordered by commanders, and prohibited the killing or taking of poultry, goats, sheep, and rams. The order is preserved in the narrative of Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 on page 332 — the final page of the main text — and constitutes the closing administrative act of the Regeeringscommissaris phase of the Atjeh-oorlog.
Background
The order was issued in the immediate aftermath of the heaviest fighting of the first semester of 1896. The three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896 had broken Teuku Umar’s stelling in the VI Moekims and captured his house at Lam-Pisang. The tuchtiging of Lam-Krak Moekims on 9 June–10 June 1896, the tuchtiging of V Moekims Montassik on 16 June–17 June 1896, and the Ladoeng Landing and Glé Broeë Attack of 22 June–23 June 1896 had imposed widespread destruction on the kampongs of the hostile mukims. The Dutch forces had engaged in significant punitive destruction — including the razing of Lam-Asan from 30 May to 2 June 1896 by 800 forced labourers, 400 Chinese koelies, and engineer troops, and the burning of kampongs west of Pantjoeran on 24 May 1896.
The scale of the destruction had begun to attract concern at the level of the Legercommandant. The Commandementsorder of 27 June 1896 was the formal expression of that concern — a reminder to commanders that the geweldenarijen en strooperijen of individual soldiers were criminal offences under Title VII of the the Dutch military criminal code, and that the burning of property and the taking of livestock were permissible only on the explicit orders of commanders.
Content
The Commandementsorder was issued on the order of the Legercommandant — that is, of Lt.-Gen. Vetter himself, in his capacity as Army Commander — on 27 June 1896, the day of his farewell parade at the Petjoet exercise terrain near Koeta Radja. Its substantive content was a reminder to all commanders of the provisions of Title VII of the Crimineel Wetboek voor het krijgsvolk te lande — the Dutch military criminal code — regarding acts of violence and poaching.
The order cited five specific Articles of the Code: Articles 174, 176, 177, 181, and 184. These Articles governed, respectively, the criminal liability of soldiers for violence against persons and property not authorised by operational necessity, the unauthorised taking of livestock and other property, the destruction of dwellings and religious buildings, and the liability of commanders who failed to prevent or punish such offences by their subordinates. The specific citation of these Articles — rather than a general reference to the Code — indicates that the Legercommandant was concerned with specific patterns of misconduct that had arisen during the operations of May and June 1896.
The order further provided two specific operational rules. First, the burning of property — kampongs, dwellings, religious buildings, crops — was permissible only on the explicit orders of commanders; individual soldiers or units were not free to burn property on their own initiative. Second, the killing or taking of poultry, goats, sheep, and rams was prohibited. This second rule was a response to the endemic problem of poaching by soldiers in the field, who had been taking livestock from Acehnese kampongs for food and profit throughout the operations.
Reception and Aftermath
The order was issued on the day of Vetter’s farewell parade at the Petjoet exercise terrain, 27 June 1896 — the last full day of his presence in Aceh as Regeeringscommissaris. The following day, 28 June 1896, Vetter and Maj. Breijer departed for Batavia aboard the steamer Coen. The office of Civiel en Militair Gouvernur was restored, Kolonel Stemfoort was appointed temporarily charged with the Civil and Military Authority, and Resident Van Langen was honorably relieved of his functions as Civil Administrator. The Commandementsorder of 27 June 1896 was thus the final administrative act of the Regeeringscommissaris phase.
The order’s effect on subsequent operations is not directly recorded in ATJEH ‘96. The tuchtiging operations of June 1896 had already been conducted; the subsequent operations of the second semester of 1896 lie outside the scope of Kruisheer’s first volume. The order nonetheless stands as the formal Dutch recognition that the tuchtiging operations of May–June 1896 had raised issues of military discipline that required explicit address.
Significance
The Commandementsorder of 27 June 1896 is the closing administrative document of the Regeeringscommissaris phase of the Atjeh-oorlog and a revealing instance of Dutch colonial military justice in action. Its citation of specific Articles of the Crimineel Wetboek voor het krijgsvolk te lande — and its specific prohibition of livestock-taking and unauthorised burning — reveals the patterns of misconduct that had arisen during the tuchtiging operations of May and June 1896. Its issuance on the day of Vetter’s farewell parade places it at the symbolic closing of the Regeeringscommissaris phase; its preservation as the final page of the main text of ATJEH ‘96 gives it a particular documentary weight. As a historical document, the order is the Dutch colonial government’s own acknowledgement that the conventional military phase of the war had imposed costs on the Acehnese civilian population that the Legercommandant himself felt bound to address.
See Also
- Luitenant-Generaal Vetter
- Vetter’s Farewell Parade (27 June 1896)
- Departure of Vetter (28 June 1896)
- Tuchtiging
- Tuchtiging of Lam-Krak Moekims (9–10 June 1896)
- Tuchtiging der V Moekims Montassik (16–17 June 1896)
- Razing of Lam-Asan (30 May – 2 June 1896)
- Three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896
- J. W. Stemfoort
- 1896
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, p. 332.