The murder of overste W. B. J. A. Scheepens on 10 October 1913 — “the most deeply lamented of the many Acehnese murders,” in du Croo’s words — took place during a sitting of the Landschapsgerecht at Sigli, when the oelèëbalang and landschapsrechter T. Béntara Titeuë stabbed the presiding Civil Authority of Pidië in the belly after the Moesapat pronounced what he considered an insufficient sentence on the man who had wounded his son. Scheepens died on 17 October 1913; the oelèëbalang was cut down on the spot. Du Croo printed the exact course of events as related by eye-witnesses, because “it clearly illuminates how even an Acehnese territorial chief is brought to such a murder.”
The quarrel over the coconuts
In October 1913 the son of the oelèëbalang of the II Moekims Titeuë in Pidië, Teukoe Béntara Titeuë, walked with a few followers through the gampong. He grew thirsty and ordered one of the followers to climb a coconut palm standing on the yard of an Acehnese and pick a few coconuts.
The owner of those coconut palms, annoyed because the oelèëbalang’s son had not asked his permission, refused to allow it. The young Teukoe in his turn grew angry, since in his view this picking was the oelèëbalang’s right, whereupon the owner threatened to bring his parang (chopping knife) down on his skull. The Teukoe held to the order once given, whereupon the owner did indeed bring the parang down on his skull, causing a bleeding head wound.
The perpetrator was arrested and taken to Sigli to stand trial before the Moesapat, the adat court.
The sitting of the Moesapat (“customary-law court”)
On the day the case was to be judged, T. Béntara Titeuë went to Sigli. At the entrance to the civil office the armed police servant on sentry duty took from the oelèëbalang his gold-ornamented, visibly worn rentjong (dagger).
The Moesapat sat under the presidency of overste Scheepens in his capacity as Civil Authority at Sigli. Scheepens asked the adjunct-djaksa (assistant native public prosecutor) what his demand was; he demanded the maximum penalty known to Dutch criminal law for slight wounding, three months’ imprisonment.
One of the oelèëbalangs sitting in judgement asked the Muhammadan adviser of the court what punishment he considered fitting for the perpetrator. The Teungkoe answered according to Acehnese adat: “Loeka oelón sipat, darah oelón soekat, lhò’ oelón takat, diët lhëë ploh reunggèt” — that is, “the wound I have measured, the (spilled) blood I have measured, the depth (of the wound) I have sounded; the blood price is thirty dollars.”
Hearing this, T. Béntara Titeuë sprang up in fury and abused the Teungkoe as “Kaphé” (unbeliever). “Jij weet heel goed,” cried the oelèëbalang, “dat ik volgens onzen adat (“customary law”) het recht heb niet alleen den man zelf, die het bloed van mijn zoon vergoten heeft, af te maken maar zelfs diens geheele familie.”
T. Béntara Titeuë grew furious again and told the President that he well understood that the President might no longer apply Acehnese adat to the perpetrator, but that if the man were not punished with at least banishment to Java, he, T. Béntara, would be “maloe” (shamed) in the eyes of his people.
In vain the Civil Authority tried to explain to the oelèëbalang that his son, by improper conduct, was the principal culprit, and that Dutch law did not permit banishment as a punishment for inflicting a slight wound.
The stabbing
The oelèëbalang persisted in his demand, and when the Moesapat pronounced the penalty of three months, T. Béntara Titeuë suddenly drew a concealed knife from beneath his clothes and stabbed overste Scheepens in the belly.
The Overste fell backwards to the ground. The adjunct-djaksa rushed forward, but had as his only weapon a wooden ruler. Then an armed police servant, an Acehnese, drew his klewang and struck T. Béntara Titeuë with it over the head. The oelèëbalang fell down and died almost at once.
Overste Scheepens, having got to his feet, forbade any harm to be done to the oelèëbalang, but it was already too late.
With his hand pressed on the abdominal wound, overste Scheepens walked on foot to the military sick-bay, saying: “that has gone well a couple of times, but this time it has gone wrong.” The officier van gezondheid at Sigli gave first aid; Scheepens was bandaged and put to bed in the sick-bay.
Swart’s response
H. N. A. Swart was at once informed of the event by telephone; by special tram he travelled to Sigli with the well-known surgeon dr. Dubinsky. But surgical intervention could no longer help. Scheepens died on 17 October 1913.
At the burial in the heroes’ cemetery Peutjoet, Swart delivered the funeral oration — “and then, perhaps for the first time in all those hard Atjeh years, Swart lost mastery of his nerves… the address had to be broken off.”
The monthly report closed: “Peace and order in the territory of Titeuë were not disturbed for a moment by what had occurred.”
Consequences
Indirectly the murder brought H. J. Schmidt back to Atjeh. On leave in Holland, Schmidt wished to be reposted to Atjeh, but the army commander — Van Daalen — would not permit it; between Van Daalen and Swart, then Major-General, matters had come almost to “a painful war.” “Only by a chance — and that was, alas, the murder of Scheepens — did Schmidt after all return to Atjeh, and even before his time; Swart could then demand a wholly suitable officer for the difficult Meulaboh district, and that the army commander could not refuse.”
Significance
The Scheepens case is the classic Dutch illustration of the collision between Acehnese adat honour and colonial criminal law: the oelèëbalang’s claim to the right of blood-vengeance against the whole family of the man who had shed his son’s blood, the adat adviser’s tariff of thirty dollars blood-price, and the Dutch maximum of three months’ imprisonment for slight wounding were incommensurable, and the sense of maloe that arose from that incommensurability produced a murder. It fits precisely into du Croo’s general explanation of the Atjeh-moord.
See Also
- W. B. J. A. Scheepens
- T. Béntara Titeuë
- H. N. A. Swart
- Moesapat
- Landschapsgerecht
- Atjeh-moord
- Sigli
- Pidië
- Peutjoet
- H. J. Schmidt
- 1913
Source
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XII, pp. 119–121; Chapter XIV, p. 140.