Perang Idi Mei 1889

Perang Idi Mei 1889 adalah rangkaian pertempuran antara para pejuang Aceh dan pasukan kolonial Belanda di negeri Idi, pesisir timur Aceh, yang berlangsung terutama pada 1, 6 dan 8 Mei 1889. Peristiwa ini terekam paling rinci dalam Hikayat Prang di Edi, terjemahan Melayu rendah dari sketsa perang Letnan J. P. Schoemaker, dan juga sampai ke pers dunia: surat kabar Te Aroha News di Selandia Baru pada 18 Mei 1889 memuat kawat dari London tentang serangan orang Aceh terhadap garnisun Belanda di Edi. Pertempuran ini terjadi pada masa ketika pemerintah kolonial di Aceh, di bawah Gubernur Jenderal van Teijn yang berkedudukan di Kutaraja, sedang menjalankan kebijakan bertahan di balik garis pertahanan terkonsentrasi di Aceh Besar, sementara pos-pos di pesisir timur seperti Idi harus bertahan dengan kekuatan kecil dan bantuan kapal perang.

Latar peristiwanya menurut sumber kolonial dimulai pada tahun 1874, ketika bendera Belanda dikibarkan di Idi pada 6 Mei dalam sebuah upacara di hadapan Raja Idi, para menterinya dan uleebalang. Sumber itu menyebut lima belas tahun berikutnya sebagai masa damai, tetapi gambaran ini perlu dibaca hati-hati karena pesisir timur Aceh adalah wilayah lada dan perdagangan yang terus diperebutkan, dan kehadiran pos Belanda tidak pernah sepenuhnya diterima masyarakat. Pada April 1889, menurut Hikayat Prang di Edi, sekitar seribu pejuang Aceh datang dan menetap di Idi. Patroli-patroli dari benteng di bawah Letnan Dua J. F. Cornelius berkali-kali ditembaki di antara benteng dan kuala Idi. Ketika diperoleh keterangan bahwa para pejuang bermaksud menyerang benteng, komandan benteng, Kapten Intvelt, memerintahkan sebuah patroli keluar.

Babak pertama terjadi pada 1 Mei 1889 pukul sebelas siang. Patroli berkekuatan 41 serdadu di bawah Letnan Satu A. de Leur, dengan Letnan Cornelius sebagai satu-satunya perwira pendamping, menyisir kebun dan ladang sekitar kampung lalu tiba di padang alang-alang setinggi dada. Di sana para pejuang Aceh telah menggali lubang-lubang pertahanan yang tersembunyi. Ketika patroli maju kira-kira lima puluh langkah, ratusan tembakan meletus dari dalam alang-alang. Patroli membalas dengan dua salvo dan serangan bayonet, merebut lubang pertama dan kedua dalam pertarungan jarak dekat melawan klewang. Namun bunyi tembakan memanggil gelombang pejuang dari hutan dan lubang-lubang lain, sehingga patroli yang tinggal memegang lima atau enam peluru per orang terkepung. Seorang fuselier Belanda bernama de Bok tewas dan lima orang luka. Patroli mundur perlahan sambil terus menembak, membawa yang luka, bahkan sempat menyembunyikan jenazah de Bok di kebun karena tandu tidak cukup. Mereka baru selamat setelah satu seksi bantuan di bawah Letnan Ostreig datang dari benteng, dan tiba kembali di benteng sekitar tengah hari. Sumber kolonial mencatat dua puluh pejuang Aceh gugur di antara lubang-lubang dan, menurut kabar, empat puluh enam lainnya di tempat lain.

Hasil patroli itu meyakinkan pihak kolonial bahwa kekuatan pejuang di Idi cukup besar untuk mengepung benteng. Kapten Intvelt meminta bantuan kapal perang Makassar yang berlabuh di Idi, yang mengirim seorang perwira dengan dua puluh lima marinir, dan mengirim kabar kepada Jenderal van Teijn di Kutaraja. Pada 4 Mei 1889 sebuah kekuatan ekspedisi berangkat dengan trem uap ke Uleelheue lalu naik kapal Condor, Albatros, Makassar dan Gouverneur Generaal van Lansbergen. Pasukan ini terdiri atas Batalion Tiga di bawah Letnan Kolonel de Bank Langenhorst, dengan Kompi Dua yang beranggotakan serdadu Ambon di bawah Kapten Hansen dan Kompi Empat yang beranggotakan serdadu Belanda di bawah Kapten Mollinger, ditambah artileri gunung, zeni, tim kesehatan dan 133 orang buruh paksa pemikul amunisi. Mereka tiba di depan Idi pada 5 Mei, tetapi badai dan ombak besar membuat hanya sebagian yang dapat mendarat dan bermalam di kampung Kuala, yang dilindungi parit-parit lebar.

Babak kedua terjadi pada 6 Mei 1889. Setelah seluruh pasukan mendarat pukul setengah delapan pagi, Letnan Kolonel Langenhorst menerima laporan bahwa para pejuang telah menggali parit sepanjang jalan dari kuala sampai ke Idi. Ia memerintahkan Kompi Dua bergerak menyusur pantai untuk memutari kedudukan lawan, sementara pasukan utama dan artileri maju melalui jalan raya. Kompi Dua menembus kebun tebu, rawa berlumpur dan hutan bakau yang hanya bisa dilalui satu orang di belakang yang lain, sampai harus membuka jalan dengan golok. Ketika akhirnya keluar dari hutan, kompi itu mendapati para pejuang Aceh sedang menembaki pasukan utama dari parit-parit mereka, tanpa menyadari ada lawan yang datang dari belakang. Serangan mendadak dengan sorak dan bayonet itu memicu pertarungan jarak dekat yang sangat keras di parit-parit dan padang alang-alang. Di jalan raya, pasukan utama juga mendapat tembakan dari hutan dan parit tetapi didukung artileri. Sumber kolonial menyebut empat puluh sampai lima puluh pejuang Aceh gugur di parit-parit dan banyak senjata dirampas, sementara di pihak kolonial tidak ada yang tewas meskipun banyak yang luka.

Pada 7 Mei pasukan beristirahat. Bantuan tambahan tiba, yaitu Kompi Satu Batalion Tiga dengan 112 serdadu Belanda di bawah Kapten van Bijlevelt, diangkut kapal Hok Canton dan Zeemeeuw. Pada pukul delapan pagi Langenhorst mengadakan pertemuan dengan Kapten Intvelt, Asisten Residen yang memerintah di Idi, serta Raja Idi dan para menterinya. Raja ditanya apa sebab kerusuhan dan kepada siapa rakyat melawan, kepada rajanya atau kepada Kompeni. Raja meminta waktu untuk berunding dengan para menterinya, dan kemudian dicatat enggan memberi keterangan tentang kedudukan, kekuatan dan maksud para pejuang. Ia juga memohon agar diizinkan mendamaikan sendiri rakyatnya, tetapi permohonan itu ditolak. Seorang penunjuk jalan bernama Mat Said kemudian memungkinkan pasukan kolonial bersiap untuk bergerak keesokan harinya.

Babak ketiga dan terbesar terjadi pada 8 Mei 1889. Kolone berangkat sebelum fajar, mencapai jembatan Sungai Pedawa Pontong sekitar pukul enam kurang seperempat, lalu meninggalkan jalan raya menuju timur laut. Artileri menembaki parit dan lubang pejuang, tetapi para pejuang menahan diri. Di dekat sebuah kebun lada, ketika pasukan sedang menempati posisi, Kompi Empat diserbu tiba-tiba oleh dua ratus lima puluh sampai tiga ratus pejuang Aceh yang melompat dari rumput tinggi, parit dan lubang sambil berteriak dan bersorak, menyerang dengan klewang. Seksi terdepan di bawah Letnan Satu J. J. A. Gaade hancur dalam pertarungan jarak dekat. Gaade tertusuk tombak di perut, dan Kopral Schordell, yang bertarung memakai popor senapan dan rencong rampasan, menerima dua puluh luka di kepala dan meninggal keesokan harinya. Serdadu Belanda yang masih muda kehilangan nyali dan mundur, kaptennya terluka di kepala, dan pasukan lain tidak berani menembak karena takut mengenai kawan sendiri. Kompi Empat baru terselamatkan ketika satu peleton Ambon di bawah Letnan van Bloemen Waanders menyerbu dengan bayonet, disusul peleton Kapten Hansen dan Letnan Muller. Di sayap lain, Sersan Mayor Wolvekamp menahan serangan pejuang yang hendak memukul Kompi Dua dari belakang, sampai para pejuang mundur ke Sungai Pedawa Pontong dan sebagian gugur di air. Sumber kolonial menyebut dua ratus delapan puluh pejuang Aceh gugur dan luka hari itu. Karena medan terlalu gelap dan rimbun, komandan memutuskan tidak mengejar dan kolone kembali ke benteng sekitar pukul setengah sepuluh pagi.

Sesudah pertempuran 8 Mei, menurut Hikayat Prang di Edi, orang Idi berhenti melawan dan Batalion Tiga kembali ke Kutaraja. Teks yang sama menyebut bahwa pada bulan Juli 1889 batalion itu kembali bertempur untuk merebut benteng para pejuang di Kota Tuanku. Namun klaim “sudah senang” itu tidak sepenuhnya sesuai dengan kenyataan, karena pada tahun berikutnya pemerintah kolonial masih harus melancarkan apa yang dalam literatur militer Belanda disebut Ekspedisi Edi 1890, dengan Kapten van Bijlevelt sebagai komandan militer, yang dibahas dalam Indisch Militair Tijdschrift tahun 1891. Fakta ini menunjukkan bahwa perlawanan di Idi dan sekitarnya berlanjut melampaui akhir cerita yang ditulis untuk konsumsi tangsi.

Perang Idi 1889 penting bagi kajian Aceh setidaknya karena tiga hal. Pertama, ia memperlihatkan bahwa pada masa garis konsentrasi, ketika Belanda tampak bertahan di Aceh Besar, perlawanan di pesisir timur tetap hidup dan mampu menghimpun ratusan hingga ribuan pejuang. Kedua, ia memperlihatkan kecanggihan taktik lapangan pejuang Aceh, terutama penggunaan jaringan lubang dan parit di padang alang-alang yang memaksa pasukan kolonial bertarung di medan yang dipilih lawannya. Ketiga, ia memperlihatkan wajah tentara kolonial yang multietnis, di mana serdadu Ambon dan Jawa ditempatkan di garis depan dan kemudian dipuja dalam bacaan propaganda. Dengan membaca peristiwa ini dari sudut pandang Aceh, para pejuang Idi tidak lagi tampil sebagai “brandal”, melainkan sebagai bagian dari perang panjang masyarakat Aceh mempertahankan negerinya.

The Idi War of May 1889 was a series of battles between Acehnese fighters and Dutch colonial forces in the state of Idi, on Aceh’s east coast, fought mainly on 1, 6 and 8 May 1889. The events are recorded in greatest detail in Hikayat Prang di Edi, the Low Malay translation of Lieutenant J. P. Schoemaker’s war sketches, and they also reached the world press: on 18 May 1889 the New Zealand newspaper Te Aroha News carried a cable from London about an Acehnese attack on the Dutch garrison at Edi. The fighting took place when the colonial government in Aceh, under General van Teijn at Kutaraja, was pursuing a defensive policy behind the concentrated line in Aceh Besar, while posts on the east coast such as Idi had to hold out with small garrisons and the support of warships.

According to the colonial source, the background begins in 1874, when the Dutch flag was raised in Idi on 6 May in a ceremony attended by the Raja of Idi, his ministers and uleebalang. That source calls the following fifteen years a time of peace, but the picture must be read with care, because Aceh’s east coast was a pepper and trading region that remained contested, and the Dutch post was never fully accepted by the population. In April 1889, according to Hikayat Prang di Edi, about a thousand Acehnese fighters arrived and settled in Idi. Patrols from the fort under Second Lieutenant J. F. Cornelius were repeatedly fired on between the fort and the river mouth of Idi. When word came that the fighters intended to attack the fort, its commander, Captain Intvelt, ordered a patrol out.

The first phase came on 1 May 1889 at eleven in the morning. A patrol of 41 soldiers under First Lieutenant A. de Leur, with Lieutenant Cornelius as his only fellow officer, searched the gardens and fields around the village and reached a field of chest-high alang-alang grass. There the Acehnese fighters had dug concealed defensive pits. When the patrol had advanced some fifty paces, hundreds of shots burst from the grass. The patrol replied with two volleys and a bayonet charge, taking the first and second pits in close combat against klewang swords. But the gunfire drew waves of fighters from the forest and other pits, and the patrol, with five or six cartridges left per man, was surrounded. A Dutch fusilier named de Bok was killed and five men were wounded. The patrol withdrew slowly while still firing, carrying the wounded, and even had to hide de Bok’s body in a garden because there were not enough stretchers. It was saved only when a relief section under Lieutenant Ostreig came out from the fort, and it reached the fort around noon. The colonial source records twenty Acehnese fighters killed among the pits and, by report, forty-six more elsewhere.

The patrol convinced the colonial side that the fighters in Idi were strong enough to besiege the fort. Captain Intvelt asked for help from the warship Makassar, anchored off Idi, which sent an officer and twenty-five marines, and sent word to General van Teijn in Kutaraja. On 4 May 1889 an expeditionary force left by steam tram for Uleelheue and boarded the Condor, the Albatros, the Makassar and the Gouverneur Generaal van Lansbergen. It consisted of the Third Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel de Bank Langenhorst, with the Second Company of Ambonese soldiers under Captain Hansen and the Fourth Company of Dutch soldiers under Captain Mollinger, plus mountain artillery, sappers, a medical team and 133 forced labourers carrying ammunition. They arrived off Idi on 5 May, but a storm and heavy seas allowed only part of the force to land and spend the night in the village of Kuala, which was protected by wide ditches.

The second phase took place on 6 May 1889. After the whole force had landed at half past seven in the morning, Lieutenant Colonel Langenhorst was told that the fighters had dug trenches along the road from the river mouth to Idi. He ordered the Second Company to move along the shore to outflank the enemy positions, while the main body and the artillery advanced along the high road. The Second Company pushed through sugar cane, muddy swamp and mangrove that could be crossed only in single file, until it had to cut its way with machetes. When it finally emerged from the forest, it found the Acehnese fighters firing from their trenches at the main body, unaware that an enemy was coming from behind. The surprise attack with shouts and bayonets set off very hard close fighting in the trenches and the grassland. On the high road the main body also came under fire from forest and trenches but was supported by the artillery. The colonial source says forty to fifty Acehnese fighters were killed in the trenches and many weapons seized, while on the colonial side no one was killed, though many were wounded.

On 7 May the troops rested. More reinforcements arrived: the First Company of the Third Battalion, with 112 Dutch soldiers under Captain van Bijlevelt, carried by the Hok Canton and the Zeemeeuw. At eight in the morning Langenhorst held a meeting with Captain Intvelt, the Assistant Resident governing Idi, and the Raja of Idi with his ministers. The raja was asked what had caused the unrest and against whom the people were rising, their raja or the Company. He asked for time to confer with his ministers, and was then recorded as unwilling to give information on the positions, strength and intentions of the fighters. He also asked to be allowed to pacify his people himself, but the request was refused. A guide named Mat Said then enabled the colonial force to prepare to march the next day.

The third and largest phase came on 8 May 1889. The column set out before dawn, reached the bridge over the Pedawa Pontong river at about a quarter to six, and left the high road heading north-east. The artillery shelled the fighters’ trenches and pits, but the fighters held their fire. Near a pepper garden, while the troops were taking up positions, the Fourth Company was suddenly assaulted by two hundred and fifty to three hundred Acehnese fighters who leapt from tall grass, trenches and pits with shouts and attacked with klewang. The leading section under First Lieutenant J. J. A. Gaade was shattered in close combat. Gaade was speared in the stomach, and Corporal Schordell, who fought with his rifle butt and a captured rencong, received twenty wounds to the head and died the next day. Young Dutch soldiers lost their nerve and fell back, their captain was wounded in the head, and other units dared not fire for fear of hitting their own men. The Fourth Company was saved only when an Ambonese platoon under Lieutenant van Bloemen Waanders charged with bayonets, followed by the platoons of Captain Hansen and Lieutenant Muller. On another flank Sergeant Major Wolvekamp held off fighters trying to strike the Second Company from behind, until the fighters fell back to the Pedawa Pontong river, where some died in the water. The colonial source puts Acehnese losses that day at two hundred and eighty killed and wounded. Because the terrain was too dark and overgrown, the commander decided not to pursue, and the column returned to the fort at about half past nine in the morning.

After the battle of 8 May, according to Hikayat Prang di Edi, the people of Idi stopped resisting and the Third Battalion returned to Kutaraja. The same text notes that in July 1889 the battalion fought again to take the fighters’ stronghold at Kota Tuanku. Yet the claim that all was now “quiet” does not quite match reality, for in the following year the colonial government still had to mount what Dutch military literature calls the Edi Expedition of 1890, with Captain van Bijlevelt as military commandant, discussed in the Indisch Militair Tijdschrift of 1891. This shows that resistance in Idi and its surroundings continued beyond the ending written for barracks readers.

The Idi War of 1889 matters for Aceh studies for at least three reasons. First, it shows that during the period of the concentrated line, when the Dutch seemed to be on the defensive in Aceh Besar, resistance on the east coast remained alive and could gather hundreds or even thousands of fighters. Second, it shows the sophistication of Acehnese field tactics, above all the network of pits and trenches in grassland that forced the colonial troops to fight on ground chosen by their opponents. Third, it reveals the multi-ethnic face of the colonial army, in which Ambonese and Javanese soldiers were placed in the front line and later glorified in propaganda reading. Read from an Acehnese standpoint, the fighters of Idi no longer appear as “bandits” but as part of the long war of Acehnese society to defend its homeland.