Toekoe Njak Amat was an Acehnese chief who, according to H. van Kol speaking in the Tweede Kamer on 17 November 1897, had “naar allen schijn” (to all appearance) been arrested in a treacherous manner near Kroeng Raja in the month preceding the debate — that is, in October 1897.
The allegation
Van Kol named the case as the third in a short series of treacherous arrests of Acehnese chiefs. He alleged that the Radja van Samalangan had been taken prisoner treacherously after being promised rifles; that the head of Bintara Peunang had likewise been arrested in a faithless manner; and that with Toekoe Njak Amat the same had to all appearance been repeated in the previous month at Kroeng raja.
The name is given in the source both as Toekoe Nja Amat and, in the same passage, in the form here adopted. The source supplies no further particulars of his district, his standing among the chiefs, the circumstances of the arrest or his subsequent fate.
Context
The alleged arrest belongs to the same phase of the war as the Dutch operations at Kroeng Raja on the north-eastern shore of Groot-Atjeh, and to the wider Dutch effort after 1896 to detach or neutralise individual chiefs. Van Kol placed the case in his catalogue of breaches of the lois et coutumes de la guerre, alongside the killing of Njahim and the marginal note attributed to Van der Heyden on the krijgsorder for the VI, XXII and XXVI Moekims.
The Minister of Colonies Cremer did not respond to this case specifically, replying only in general terms to the charge of cruelty.
See Also
- Atrocities in the Aceh War as alleged in the Tweede Kamer (1897)
- Radja van Samalangan
- Bintara Peunang
- H. van Kol
- Kroeng Raja
- Teuku
- 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, p. 64.
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.