Montassik

Montassik was a kampong in the XXII Moekims of Atjeh, whose missigit — a fortified mosque that served as the principal arsenal of Habib Abdurrahman — was the object of the capture of 28 July 1878, the opening operation of the Dutch campaign in the XXII Moekims of 23 July 23 July 1878 – 23 March 23 March 1879. With the taking of Montassik the initial objective of the operations was attained. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, the broader V Moekims Montassik — written in Dutch as also V Moekims Mont Tassik and meaning “Five Mukims of Montassik” — was a region of Groot-Atjeh comprising five mukims situated in the south-eastern portion of the Atjeh-oorlog theatre, of which the district head was T. Brahim Montassik and the ulèëbalang was T. Rajoet. The V Moekims Montassik were a constant source of hostile benden (war-bands) against the buitenposten of the buitenlinie, and the Dutch post of Senelop was constructed as a barrier against them.

Background (the 1878 campaign against the kampong)

Information had been received that Habib Abdurrahman had gathered at Montassik in July [1878] a great quantity of food and war-material and was planning thence to make a new incursion into the IV Moekims. The governor Van der Heyden therefore decided to forgo the planned expedition to Pasanga and to enter with all available forces the still independent and hostile territory of the XXII Moekims, to seek the enemy in his own arsenal at Montassik. On 23 July 23 July [1878] the important campaign began with three columns.

The Capture of 28 July 1878

While the first column advanced from Lambaroe over Lamtenga and the missigit of Anak Bate towards Montassik, the second column, which had secured the river-crossing at Lamkali, and the third, which had set out from Oleh Karang, reached on 25 July 25 July [1878] the strong Senelop north of Montassik. When the first storming by the second column had been repulsed and the soldiers — mostly Frenchmen and Belgians — could not be moved to a second, the vanguard of the third column, a company of Africans, came up to help and drove the enemy from the parapet; the benting was taken. On 28 July 28 July [1878] the third column, after a powerful bombardment by the artillery, took the missigit Montassik, and with this the initial objective of the operations was attained.

The Continuation of the Campaign

The neighbouring kampongs were still hostile, and Dutch transports were continually threatened. The enemy did not yet seem inclined to submit. “It was therefore considered desirable to push further on to Indrapuri with its famous missigit. For this, however, more data about that region had first to be collected, and as the rainy season was again approaching, one had for the time being to confine oneself to holding the positions taken, with preparation for later operations.” The campaign continued from 1 August 1 August [1878] to 23 March 23 March [1879] in a system of “standfast, reconnoitre, punish,” with constant reconnaissances and patrols, especially in the sawah of Lamkrak west of Montassik. On 25 August 25 August [1878] the first overture toward submission was made by Habib Abdurrahman himself, soon followed by others; on 13 October 13 October [1878] he formally submitted at Kota Radja.

The V Moekims Montassik (ATJEH ‘96 account)

As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, the V Moekims Montassik were a region of Groot-Atjeh comprising five mukims situated in the south-eastern portion of the Atjeh-oorlog theatre. The mukim of Lam-Djampoe lay entirely within the Dutch post line. The V Moekims Montassik were the object of the diversionary operation of 2 May 1896 and of the tuchtiging (chastisement) of 16–17 June 1896.

Description and Location (ATJEH ‘96 account)

The V Moekims Montassik lay to the south-east of Koeta Radja between the XXII Moekims and the XXVI Moekims, extending from the Kroeng Lingkar toward the gebergte (mountain range) and the Lamkrak country. The mukim of Lam-Djampoe lay entirely within the Dutch post line, but the rest of the V Moekims was outside the buitenlinie. The principal kampongs were Lam-Goet (residence of Toekoe Hoesin Lehong Bata), Hoho (with its masdjid and imam T. Nja Bintang), Lam-Djampoe (with its fortified mosque), Lam-Bada/Anak Baté, and Tjihig (Tjihik). The sawah plain of Blang Bintang was the corridor by which enemy bands from the V Moekims crossed to harass the XXVI Moekims population.

Historical Background (ATJEH ‘96 account)

The V Moekims Montassik had been a centre of resistance throughout the Atjeh-oorlog. The old Dutch post of Senelop had been conquered in early 1894 in the course of operations against the V Moekims Montassik, after which the post was held to act as a barrière (barrier) against their benden (war-bands). From 1878 onward — and especially after the Umar policy of 1893 — the V Moekims Montassik were under the influence of T. Brahim Montassik and his brother T. Rajoet, who controlled the benden that periodically attacked the buitenposten of Senelop, Kroeng Gloempang, and Tjot Rang. Toekoe Hoesin Lehong Bata of Lam-Goet in the V Moekims Montassik was one of the most active Achehnese war-leaders, and his Pedireezen (men from Pedir) mercenaries were a constant presence in the region.

Role in the 1896 Operations (ATJEH ‘96 account)

The V Moekims Montassik were the object of two major Dutch operations in 1896. On 2 May 1896 Van Heutsz led a diversionary operation from Siroen that reoccupied the old Dutch posts of Senelop (taken at 9:10 AM by maréchaussée and 3e Bataljon) and Lamsoet (taken without opposition by 12e Bataljon and burned); the 12e Bataljon proceeded via Belang-West and Bralon, while the 3e Bataljon also positions from Lam-Pré over Lam-Tjot toward Lam-Sinjing and Lam-Bada. The principal operation, however, was the tuchtiging of 16–17 June 1896 under Kolonel Stemfoort, in which three colonnes moved against Adjé, Aloer Lintang, Lam-Nga, Shan, Tjot Maraja, Tjot Sajoen, and the benteng of Toekoe Rajoet south of Kajoe Koenjit. The benteng of Lam-Goet was occupied without resistance by compagnie Linck on 17 June 1896 and burned; the benteng of Tjot Preh was burned by 12e Bataljon; and the benteng Kroeng-Kali (technically in the XIII Moekims Toengkoeb but operationally linked) was stormed by compagnie Linck. Toekoe Hoesin Long Bata was killed earlier on 5 June 1896 in the valley of Beradin.

Significance (ATJEH ‘96 account)

The V Moekims Montassik were the principal south-eastern bastion of Achehnese resistance and the immediate geographic object against which the buitenposten of Senelop and Lamsoet had been built. Their tuchtiging in June 1896 was the second-largest operation of the first semester of 1896 after the three-day offensive against Teuku Umar, and demonstrated the new Dutch policy of moving beyond the old defensive linie into active chastisement of hostile mukims. The death of Toekoe Hoesin Long Bata removed one of the most dangerous Achehnese war-leaders in this region.

Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the mesigit of Montasih, August 1876

Meijer’s calendar of the Habib’s advance gives Montasih’s mesigit as the place of assembly of the enemy chiefs in August 1876: on 12 August the Dutch spies reported that Habib Abdoer Rachman had for some days been keeping to the mesigit of Montasih and had many principal heads there with him — Panglima Polim, Toewankoe Moeda Daoed and Toewankoe Hasjim, names known well enough to need no comment. To the question of Toewankoe Hasjim why he did not let his fighters move up against the kafirs, the Habib is reported to have answered: “I wish first to pay a visit to the Mesigit Raia, which I have myself built, and to pray there” — a resolution which he was said actually to have executed with some followers, and after which he declared that a divine revelation had pointed him out the 27th of the month Redjeb (17–18 August 1876) as the favourable day for an attack on the Dutch troops. On 27 August he was again reported to have gone to Montasih, his prestige and influence ever increasing.

Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)

Verstege records from the Koloniaal Verslag that Montassik was evacuated between 12 and 28 February 1885, in succession with Boekit Seboen, Boekit Lampaja, Kroeng Raba, Toengkoep, Anak Galoeng with Boekloe, Senelop and Pakan Badak, in the completion of the concentration (see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885)).

Montassie in the eye survey of 1937

In Dr. C. E. Gomperts’s eye survey of 1937, the V Moekims Montassie figure twice: as the district worst hit by crop failure in 1936–1937, and as the control district for the question of trachoma.

The crop failure

1936 and 1937 were marked by long-continued drought throughout Groot-Atjeh. In V Moekims Montassie, Gomperts recorded, “had men behalve van de droogte, ook van een walangsangitplaag te lijden, zoodat in sommige Moekims van dit District eene vrijwel volledige oogstmislukking werd geboekt” — besides the drought there was also a walang sangit plague to suffer, so that in some moekims of this district an almost complete crop failure was recorded.

The district’s misfortune served as a natural experiment on the causes of xerophthalmie. Had dietary deficiency alone caused the disease, Montassie should have shown a markedly raised frequency; in fact it “weinig verschilde van die van de vallei-Moekims Baet, met een veel beteren oogst.”

The trachoma control

Because the population of Moekim Montassie was exclusively Atjehnese, without the admixture of Javanese, Padangers and Malays found in the busier coastal places, it tested the theory that conjunctivitis follicularis was a mild trachoma spread by contact with other races. There 75 cases were found among 1,795 children examined — rather more than 4 per cent — against 78 among 1,325 (6 per cent) at Oelee-Lheuë: a difference too small to support the theory, and part of Gomperts’s ground for concluding that trachoma proper did not occur in the surveyed area.

Source

De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 100-103.

ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 22, 26, 143, 148, 149, 156, 292, 295.

Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), p. 82. OCR: DLP-158. Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.

tags	place, kampong, acehnese, aceh-war, xxii-moekims, v-moekims-montassik, dutch, colonial, military, lamkrak, agriculture, 1937, medicine, public-health
aliases	Montasik, Montassiek, Missigit Montassik, V Moekims Montassik, V Moekims Mont Tassik, 5 Mukims Montassik, V Moekims Montassie, Montassie, vallei-Moekims Montassie

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