The dagorder of the Governor of Atjeh on cruelties against women and children was a daily order of the Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies, issued shortly before November 1897, commanding the troops to abstain from cruelties against women and children. It was cited by H. van Kol in the Atjeh debate as evidence that such cruelties were in fact occurring, since an order forbidding them would otherwise have been superfluous.
Citation in the debate
Van Kol, answering the Minister of Colonies Cremer’s denial of cruelty on 17 November 1897, said: “Kort geleden moest in eene dagorder van den gouverneur van Atjeh het zich onthouden van wreedheden tegen vrouwen en kinderen worden geboden” — recently, in a daily order of the governor of Atjeh, abstention from cruelties against women and children had to be enjoined.
He placed the order in a series with two other official texts. The first was the instruction of the commander in Atjeh of 27 July 1875, which had recommended “alle handelingen, die den vijand breuk doen” (all acts that damage the enemy) and had expressly ordered, among other things, the “verbranden van huizen, vernielen van kampongs” (burning of houses, destruction of kampongs). The second was the most recent Koloniaal Verslag, which spoke repeatedly of the “in den asch leggen van kampongs” (laying of kampongs in ashes), of the “vernielen en verbranden der schuilhoeken” (destroying and burning of hiding-places) and of the “uitroeien van bosschen” (extirpation of forests), so that the population found refuge only in the “gespaarde kampongs” (spared villages).
Significance
The order is significant as an internal admission by the Dutch military administration in Atjeh that acts against non-combatants were taking place on a scale requiring formal prohibition. Cremer in his reply neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the dagorder, but argued that women and children watching a fight from a distance might be struck because “men heeft een afgeschoten kogel niet meer in zijne macht” (one no longer has control of a bullet once fired), while denying that cruelties in cold blood had occurred. On 17 November he associated himself with Kuyper’s position that concrete proven cases would be condemned by every party in the chamber, and quoted the statement of the former Minister Bergsma of 22 September 1896 that both the Netherlands and the Indies governments were most strongly opposed to mutileeren (mutilation) and that the Governor-General had forbidden it in the strictest terms.
See Also
- Atrocities in the Aceh War as alleged in the Tweede Kamer (1897)
- H. van Kol
- J. T. Cremer
- Mr. J. H. Bergsma
- Koloniaal Verslag
- Kappen en branden
- Atjeh debate in the Tweede Kamer (16-17 November 1897)
- 27 July
- 1875
- 1897
Source
Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, pp. 63–64, 59, 79–80.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898 (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.