Kerkhof is evidence of the persistent struggle of the people of Aceh against the Dutch attack. This is where some 2,200 Dutch soldiers were buried during the war against the Acehnese fighters. Includes four generals.
This complex is also called Kerkhof Peutjut. Kerkhof literally means a church or grave site, while Peutjut is Pocut's nickname Meurah Pupok, the crown prince of Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636). Long before being used as a Dutch cemetery, here there was a tomb of Meurah Pupok and some close sultan.
Meurah Pupok died after his father's conviction for violating the royal law at that time. Before his son's death sentence, the sultan said “Gadoh aneuk meupat jeurat, godah adat pat tamita" (lost his son knows his grave, lost his customs can not be searched again)."
Kerkhof Peutjut is located in Blower Area, Banda Aceh City just behind the Aceh Tsunami Museum. In addition to domestic tourists, this location is also frequented by foreign tourists especially from Netherlands, Japan and Malaysia.
At the Kerkhof gate, visitors are directly addressed in Dutch, Arabic and Javanese, which means "For our friends who died on the battlefield". They were killed since the first invasion after the Dutch declared war on Aceh since March 26, 1873.
On the walls were the names of the Dutch soldiers killed in the war in Aceh, complete with the year and the location of their death. Not all from the Netherlands. Some of the names are comprised of natives. They are believed to be Marsose soldiers and KNIL troops alias Dutch troops recruited from Ambon, Manado and Java to be deployed against Aceh.
Four Dutch generals buried in Kerkhof include Major General Johan Harmen Rudolf Köhler and Major General J.L.H. Pel. Kohler was the leader of the Dutch troops killed by Acehnese fighters in the battle at Baiturrahman Masjid Raya Banda Aceh, April 14, 1873.
In the Kerkhof visitors can also see the unique designs of the cemetery, and even most of them have a short testimonial that tells the story of the lives of the soldiers. This testimonial is written in Dutch.
In Kerkhof Peutjut's military grave guidebook published in 2007, cited from around 2,200 cemeteries there, there were 35 tombs of the Royal Navy officers and 118 other officers. The exact number of tombs in Peutjut is no longer available because all documents and files have been lost since the Japanese occupation in March 1942.
Kerkhof Peutjut is now managed by Yayasan Dana Peutjut (Stichting Peutjut - Fonds) established on January 29, 1976 on J.H.J. Brendgen, a Marsose colonel who is deeply concerned about the condition of the military mausoleum after his visit to Aceh