Kolonel Simbolon was the territorial commander of Territorium I, Bukit Barisan, in the Indonesian National Army, entrusted in October 1953 with the reconquest of Atjeh from the rebel forces of the Negara Islam Indonesia (N.I.I.) following Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh’s proclamation of Atjeh’s accession to the N.I.I. on 21 September 1953. His frank public statement on 3 October 1953 — that the crisis in Atjeh could not be solved by weapons alone — became one of the defining public acknowledgements of the rebellion’s political depth.
An ironic assignment
Henri J. H. Alers’s Om een rode of groene Merdeka calls the reconquest of Atjeh, given the scale of the rebel gains by late September 1953, “a nearly hopeless task,” and notes a certain irony in the fact that Simbolon, given this “unenviable” assignment, had himself declared himself for “green” — the Islamic side — during the 17 October 1952 controversy on Java. Nonetheless, Alers writes, Simbolon “tackled the problem vigorously” and achieved more success than had been hoped.
Simbolon’s statement of 3 October 1953
H. C. Beynon’s Nederland staat terecht in Indonesië records Simbolon’s statement of 3 October 1953 — the same day government forces reached Seulimeum from Kutaradja — in which the territorial commander offered an unusually candid assessment of the situation: “De toestand in Atjeh is zeer ernstig; het is niet mogelijk deze kwestie met wapenen alleen op te lossen” (“The situation in Atjeh is very serious; it is not possible to resolve this question with weapons alone”). The remark acknowledged what the government in Djakarta was reluctant to admit publicly: that the 1953 rebellion drew on deep grievances that military reconquest alone would not address.
The reconquest of Atjeh (October–November 1953)
The government counter-offensive, conducted under Simbolon’s command, unfolded through October and November 1953: Seulimeum was reached from Kutaradja on 3 October, and the hamlet of Bajeunen, some 20 kilometres from Langsa, on the same date; Meureudu was retaken on 10 October after heavy fighting; Blangkedjeren and Bireuën were occupied on 20 October; and Takengon was finally recaptured on 24 November 1953 in a pincer operation mounted from Blangkedjeren and Bireuën. Troop reinforcements were also sent to the West Coast. By the end of November 1953, Alers records, all the major towns and connecting roads of Atjeh were once more in government hands, though fierce attacks on them continued, and the rebellion — no longer holding a contiguous territory with open lines to the outside world — had been reduced to the scale of “roving bands in the interior,” much as the parallel insurgencies in West Java and South Celebes.
See Also
- Teungkoe Moehamad Daoed Beureu-éh
- Negara Islam Indonesia
- Atjèh’s accession to the Negara Islam Indonesia (1953)
- Darul Islam
- Nederland staat terecht in Indonesië
- Kutaradja
- Takengon
- 1953
Sources
Om een rode of groene Merdeka: Tien jaren binnenlandse politiek Indonesië, 1943–1953, by Henri J. H. Alers (Eindhoven: Uitgeverij Vulkaan, 1956), Chapter VII §35 “De Negara Islam Indonesia in Atjeh,” pp. 272–274.
Nederland staat terecht in Indonesië: Achtergronden van de processen tegen Nederlanders in Djakarta, by H. C. Beynon (Utrecht: A.W. Bruna & Zoon, 1957), chronological appendix pp. 218–225. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, shelfmark 26526217. Delpher Digital Library, reference DLP-79.