Jan Bezemer's long Trouw weekend feature (30 Sep 1995) on the unresolved 1965 trauma. Covers the 30 September events, Suharto's role, US encouragement, massacres (Gatot's trial testimony) and the smear campaign against Gerwani. Draws on Saskia Wieringa's doctoral research: Gerwani was blamed for mutilating the generals
Trouw correction column (4 Oct 1995): a wrong phone number for the Cézanne exhibition, and a note that the 30 September article on the 1965 coup drew on Saskia Wieringa's research, due for her Amsterdam doctorate on 6 October, under-acknowledged. Gives her thesis title: The Politicization of Gender Relations in Indones
De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c
Berita Yudha, 10 Oct 1995, p. 1: Minister Tarmizi Taher claims the PKI once 'recruited Gerwani' as domestic servants posing as Christians or Muslims to provoke religious conflict.
TAPOL Bulletin no. 133 (February 1996), London human rights newsletter on East Timor, West Papua hostage crisis, British investment, street children, Suharto's cabinet rifts, SBSI union harassment, Sri-Bintang's trial and AJI. Gerwani appears only in the review of Carmel Budiardjo's 'Surviving Indonesia's Gulag' (p.19-
Bali Post, 30 Sept 1996, p. 1: at a youth seminar on the 'latent danger of communism' Amien Rais says Gerwani 'slashed' the generals; Taufiq Ismail cites S.K. Trimurti as ex-Gerwani; PRD branded 'new PKI'.
Analisa (Medan), 19 June 1997, p. 1: Religious Affairs Minister Tarmizi Taher claims a domestic worker causing religious unrest was 'a member of Gerwani/PKI' and links the PRD to riots; Gerwani used as a scare label.
Berita Yudha, 28 Sept 1997, p. 12: tourism feature on the Lubang Buaya monument stating that in the 'torture house' four officers 'were cruelly tortured by Gerwani until they breathed their last'.
Analisa (Medan), 4 Oct 1997, p. 7: commentary for Hari Kesaktian Pancasila repeating the official G30S account and invoking 'the barbarity of the PKI with its Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat'.
Berita Yudha, 31 Dec 1997, p. 4: hero biography stating a Gerwani demonstration in Surabaya on 27 Sept 1965 damaged the East Java governor's residence, reported by Basuki Rachmat to Yani.
Berita Yudha, 8 Jan 1998, p. 4: final instalment of a hero biography of M.T. Harjono stating PKI antecedents like Pemuda Rakyat, CGMI and Gerwani used volunteer training as a mask, as at Lubang Buaya.
South China Sunday Morning Post, 26 Apr 1998, p.8, Jenny Grant: report on the trial in Medan of the sorcerer Datuk (Achmad Suradji), accused of killing 42 young women. After first confessing he retracted and blamed 'an outlawed communist women's group known as Gerwani', claiming police forced his confession; the articl
South China Sunday Morning Post, 27 Sep 1998, p.8, Jenny Grant: after Suharto's fall, historians and politicians call for a reassessment of the 1965 coup and killings; the government has dropped compulsory screening of the New Order propaganda film. The article repeats that members of 'the communist women's organisatio
Bali Post, 16 Apr 1999, p. 1: founding of the YPKP 65 foundation (15 Apr 1999, YLBHI, Jakarta), chaired by Sulami, ex-Gerwani member imprisoned 20 years, with Pramoedya; research on killing sites and aim to hold Suharto accountable.
South China Morning Post, 17 July 1999, p.37, Marian Wilkinson (Sydney Morning Herald), 'Killing off the communists': newly released US embassy and CIA cables show US officials encouraging the army's anti-PKI campaign in Oct-Nov 1965, urging anti-PKI propaganda that links 'diabolical murder and mutilation of the genera
Tempo book review (29 Aug 1999) of Carmel Budiardjo's prison memoir on New Order detention (Likdam, Bukit Duri, 'bon' interrogations, ET stigma). It records her witness to teenage women political prisoners tortured to make the script of Gerwani's involvement in the Lubang Buaya killings work, and notes she founded Tapo
Tempo interview (29 Aug 1999) with Sulami, former Deputy Secretary-General II of Gerwani, with a short biography: arrested 12 Feb 1967 on Amir Machmud's order, tried 1975, released 1984, torture by rattan between fingers and threats of rape; founded the 1965-66 victims research foundation. She denies any Gerwani role a
Bali Post, 13 Mar 2000, p. 11: Wimar Witoelar interview with ex-CGMI leader Hardoyo, stating that the autopsy showed Gerwani did not mutilate the generals, a story that had inflamed mass killings.
Bali Post, 7 Apr 2000, p. 7: editorial on Wahid's proposal to revoke the 1966 PKI ban, saying the military's stories of sadism by Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat made the killings 'barbarity' in public memory and enabled mass slaughter.
South China Sunday Morning Post, 23 Apr 2000, p.10, Vaudine England: profile of Sudjinah Halina (72), former Gerwani activist and political prisoner, as Indonesia reopens debate on 1965. She recounts Solo childhood, guerrilla courier work (1947-49), study at Gadjah Mada, the 1955 Prague youth festival, a job with the W
Bali Post, 23 Apr 2000, p. 3: interview with Balinese educator and DPRGR member Ida Ayu Sutiti Wirati Diwangkara, who says she represented 'women' in the DPRGR where women's associations like Gerwani were represented; rich on women's education.
Bali Post, 28 Apr 2000, p. 19: YPKP 65 (Sulami) and Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa press Komnas HAM to investigate post-G30S massacres; Sulami denies slashing the generals and demands her family's name be cleared.
Bali Post, 12 May 2000, p. 10 and 'Aspirasi': victim of the 27 July 1996 PDI attack says police forced her to strip because officers were convinced she was a 'former Gerwani'; Gerwani as an accusation against women.
Algemeen Dagblad (2000-05-27, Nina Eberlijn, Jakarta): Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad discusses the near-impossibility of prosecuting Suharto-era abuses and a South African-style truth commission; Kontras cites ~16,000 missing. Sulami, jailed 20 years as a Gerwani activist, says reconciliation needs victims' test
Sulami's 33-page booklet (Cipta Lestari, March 2001) retelling Kartini's life as a socialist, anti-colonial genealogy for women, then tracing women's organisations and the 1965 destruction of Gerwani. A former Gerwani leader's historical-political reflection.
IISG portrait photograph of Sudjinah (no. 1 of 3, dated 2001, collection Ibu Sudjina): colour photograph of an elderly grey-haired woman seated at a table with a microphone, plants behind. Sudjinah is identified only by the file title; useful as visual documentation of a Gerwani leader later in life.
IISG portrait photograph of Sudjinah (no. 2 of 3, dated 2001, collection Ibu Sudjina): colour snapshot of an elderly woman in a brown blouse and white skirt on a garden path. Sudjinah is identified only by the file title; useful as visual documentation of a Gerwani leader later in life.
IISG portrait photograph of Sudjinah (no. 3 of 3, dated 2001, collection Ibu Sudjina): black-and-white head-and-shoulders portrait of an elderly woman with glasses in a white blouse. Sudjinah is identified only by the file title; useful as visual documentation of a Gerwani leader later in life.
Bali Post, 16 Feb 2001, p. 14: a radio caller opposes stamping sex workers by recalling that in the G30S period 'Gerwani women were stamped' though innocent.
Waspada (Medan), 2 June 2001, p. 4: essay on abuses on North Sumatran plantations, observing that after 1965 estate women were 'ceaselessly shadowed by the stigma of Gerwani'.