Kroeëng Seukoeleh is a river and stroomgebied (river basin) of central Aceh that formed the western side of the colonne Schmidt’s theatre of operations against the Tiriō bende in 1910-1911. The river and its basin were the western boundary of the Tiriō resistance area; the eastern boundary was the valleys of Tangsé and Geumpang against the hellingen of Goenoeng Alimon and Peuët Sagoë.
The theatre
“Ten Westen in het stroomgebied van de Kroeëng Seukoeleh.” The Kroeëng Seukoeleh river basin formed the western side of the Tiriō theatre. “De bergen niet zo hoog” but “weinig streken, waar het zwaarder en moeilijker begaanbaar is” — the mountains not so high, but few regions where it is heavier and more difficult to traverse. The basin was therefore both geographically modest (no high mountains) and tactically impassable (heavy, difficult terrain).
The first bekas
The first bekas of Peutoeha Gam Masén’s fourageurs was found near the Kroeëng Seukoeleh. “Vonden de spoorzoekers het bekas van neushoornjagers” (rhino-hunters’ footprints) mixed in with the bende’s own sporen, a sign of how remote the streek was. The colonne followed the spoor into the bergen. The Kroeëng Seukoeleh was therefore the place at which the colonne Schmidt’s hunt for the Tiriō bende began.
The danger of the river
“Het zou niet de eerste keer zijn, indien er in de Kroeëng Seukoeleh een soldaat verdronk en ook de laatste niet.” The Kroeëng Seukoeleh was dangerous: a soldier could drown there, and it would not be the first or the last time. The river’s danger is the book’s marker of the lethality of the Acehnese rimboe even in peacetime.
The omsingeling
The first omsingeling of a ladang — the surrounding of a field — caught an old woman, a child, and a man from the Westkust. The man was not from those parts but from the Westkust; he had been in the bergen anderhalf jaar tevoren to search for rotan when he stumbled on Gam Masén’s bende and was forced to join. The omsingeling at the Kroeëng Seukoeleh is therefore the book’s set-piece of the colonne method’s first succes in the Tiriō campaign.
Significance
The Kroeëng Seukoeleh is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the western boundary of the colonne Schmidt’s theatre and the place at which the colonne’s hunt for the Tiriō bende began. The book’s argument is that the river basin — geographically modest but tactically impassable — was the kind of terrain that made the colonne method necessary: small, highly trained patrouilles operating with local intelligence against a religiously motivated resistance.
See Also
- Colonne Schmidt campaign against the Tiriō Teungkoes (1910-1911)
- Tangsé
- Geumpang
- Goenoeng Alimon
- Peuët Sagoë
- Peutoeha Gam Masén
- Nussy
- Bekas
- Westkust (of Atjeh)
- 1910
- 1911
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “De colonne Schmidt.”