The Death of Mas Soemo Widikdjo was the killing in January 1874 of the Javanese zendeling (emissary) Mas Soemo Widikdjo, who had been dispatched by Lieutenant-General Van Swieten as parlementair — a bearer of a flag of truce — into the Acehnese lines during the Second Expedition. His death — whether by murder or in the course of combat — was regarded by the Dutch as a violation of the laws of war and provided the justification for the subsequent bombardment of Pedir. Van Swieten made the inviolability of parlementaires a central theme of his correspondence with the Sultan and of his public proclamations.
Mas Soemo Widikdjo’s Background
Mas Soemo Widikdjo was a Javanese man of considerable age and standing, accompanied by two followers and two natives of Serdang. He had previously rendered services to the Dutch as a guide and interpreter on earlier occasions in the archipelago. Van Swieten, writing to the Sultan, described him as “a man of standing and advanced years.” His mission during the second expedition was to carry the Dutch proposals for peace into the Acehnese-held territory and to urge the Sultan to accept negotiations on terms modelled on the Siak treaty of 1858.
The Mission and the Disappearance
On 1 December 1873, Van Swieten dispatched two letters to the Sultan. In the first, the Sultan was informed of the conditions on which the Dutch were still willing to make peace — namely, if he declared himself willing to sign a tractaat of approximately the same content as that concluded with the Sultan of Siak Sri Indrapoera in 1858. In the second letter — an appeal to the principles of civilized warfare — the Sultan was asked to agree that no harm should be done to prisoners of war, to non-combatants including clergy, physicians, and civilian persons, and that the Dutch dead should be buried according to Islamic custom by a Muslim priest attached to the expeditionary force; in return, the Dutch would treat Acehnese prisoners and dead with equal respect. The Sultan was specifically asked to ensure the safety of Dutch parlementaires and to return the letters’ bearer unharmed.
With the delivery of these letters was charged the native Mas Soemo Widikdjo, who proceeded into the interior.
He never returned.
Van Swieten waited twelve days. On 2 January 1874, he addressed a third letter directly to the Sultan: “What have you done with my envoy MANTRIE MAS SOEMOE WIDIKDJO, a man of standing and advanced years? It is also not customary among any people to leave letters unanswered. What can be the reason that Your Highness has been unwilling to answer my offer to conclude peace?”
The letter continued with an ultimatum: Van Swieten informed the Sultan that within a few days he would be prepared to bombard the Kraton and would be obliged to destroy it together with all surrounding houses. He added that he would request his friend, the English Colonel Woolcombe of {{HMS Thalia}}, to transmit the letter together with one from Queen Victoria to the Sultan.
The absence of any reply, and the failure of Mas Soemo Widikdjo to return, confirmed the Dutch command in their belief that the emissary had been killed or detained. Whether he was murdered outright or perished in the course of hostilities could not be established with certainty.
The Aftermath and the Bombardment of Pedir
The death of the parlementair was regarded as a grave violation of the usages of war among civilized nations. Van Swieten invoked it repeatedly in his subsequent correspondence and proclamations. As a form of reprisal, the Dutch naval forces later bombarded Pedropunt on the coast — an act that Van Swieten’s critics later condemned as punishing the innocent for the deed of others, but which the Dutch command presented as a necessary demonstration of resolve.
Van Swieten’s Letter on the Laws of War
The letter of 1 December 1873 in which Van Swieten proposed mutual observance of the laws of war deserves particular attention. In it, Van Swieten wrote:
“It is a usage among civilized nations who worship the one God and obey His laws — to do no harm to prisoners of war, nor to persons who do not bear arms, even though they belong to the warring armies, such as clergy, physicians, and civilian persons engaged in political or literary work, also not to officers of administration who care for magazines and provisions. I propose to Your Highness to follow this usage likewise.”
He promised that no harm would be done to Acehnese who might become Dutch prisoners, that they would be provided with food and necessities, and that if wounded they would be cared for alongside Dutch wounded and sick. He further promised that Acehnese dead would be buried by a Muslim priest in accordance with Islamic custom, and asked reciprocally that Dutch dead be respected and properly interred.
The letter also specifically requested that no harm be done to Dutch emissaries, but that they be treated courteously and their letters received and read — “for how could we come to deliberation and negotiations if the lives of our envoys were not safe and their persons not sacred?”
The silence of the Sultan — and the non-return of Mas Soemo Widikdjo — was Van Swieten’s answer.
See Also
- Mas Soemo Widikdjo
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
- Jan van Swieten
- Sultan Aladin Mahmoed Shah
- Van Swieten’s Letter on Civilized Warfare (1 December 1873)
- Van Swieten’s Ultimatum to the Sultan (2 January 1874)
- Aceh War
Source
De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh, door den Luitenant-Generaal J. van Swieten, Zalt-Bommel, Joh. Noman en Zoon, [1879], pp. 142–170 (Hoofdstuk IV); Bijlage F, pp. 474–475; Bijlage D, pp. 471–472.