New objectives at 11th NVB congress
Front-page De Waarheid report (12 Feb 1980) on the 11th congress of the Nederlandse Vrouwenbeweging (NVB), which re-elected Riek Hoogkamp. The congress adopted a declaration asking Dutch ministers to press Indonesia to restore civil rights of released political prisoners, grant amnesty to women independence fighters, a
Trial will not go ahead (Tanti Aidit)
Short De Waarheid item (6 Mar 1980, p.9): the planned trial of Tanti Aidit after twelve years' detention will not go ahead. It argues she had nothing to do with the 'CIA-organised coup' and her only offence was Gerwani board membership, naming Suharti, Sudjinah and Shri Ambar as fellow Gerwani women who also paid.
Imprisonment: Wertheim on continued prosecution of Gerwani women
Closing section of a Wertheim piece in De Volkskrant (28 Apr 1981). It states that women active in Gerwani are still prosecuted: in 1979 two were given extremely heavy sentences without credit for detention since 1965, and with six other Gerwani women were moved to Tangerang. The rest concerns ex-CIA officer McGehee an
Population movement hits Papuans
De Waarheid report (23 Mar 1985, p.3) on a Dutch parliamentary committee debate criticising Indonesia's transmigration to West Papua. CPN MP Ina Brouwer, pressing minister Schoo on freedom of organisation, states that Gerwani, 'the progressive Indonesian women's movement' that once did much for women, is banned; Schoo
Despite executions... generals can count on continued support
Front-page De Waarheid report (5 Jun 1985) on Dutch minister Schoo's opening speech at the 28th IGGI conference in Amsterdam, urging donors to continue backing Suharto's regime without mentioning executions. A Komitee Indonesië spokeswoman says she was shocked that Schoo ignored the ban on Gerwani and that existing wom
For a free Indonesia (founding of the Wertheim Foundation)
De Waarheid report (30 Nov 1987, p.4) on the launch of the Wertheim Foundation, where W.F. Wertheim praised a Hendra painting of a male and female guerrilla. He argued that the Suharto regime rests on mass murder and falsified history, and that one task is to write the real history of Gerwani, Lekra, SOBSI and the PKI.
Jan Maassen wants to see the Indies refusers together once more
De Waarheid article by Joop Morriën (6 Feb 1988, p.9) on Jan Maassen's plan for a reunion of Dutch conscripts who refused to serve in Indonesia in 1948-49 (Schoonhoven boys), recounting his three years' imprisonment and the arbitrary sentencing. Lawyers Trees Sunito-Heyligers and Clara Enthoven defended refusers by lin
East is East and West is West (Kousbroek)
Rudy Kousbroek's column 'Oost is Oost en West is West' in NRC Handelsblad (19 Feb 1988): an anecdote of a Minahasan surveyor in Maluku shocked by his atheism, with remarks on Indonesian attitudes to feminism and childlessness. Ends as the surveyor asks whether they are communists. No mention of Gerwani; background colo
The Chinese: at school parties we were equal, that was modern (Go Gien Tjwan)
Interview with Dr Go Gien Tjwan in NRC Handelsblad's 'Hun Indië' series (30 Apr 1988): memories of peranakan Chinese life in colonial Malang, racial hierarchy, schooling, Chinese revival in the 1930s and student politics at Batavia under Wertheim. Background on Chinese Indonesians; no Gerwani content.
Hundreds of Indonesia refusers recalled memories (reunion in Dronten)
De Waarheid report (17 Oct 1988, p.2) on the reunion of hundreds of Dutch Indonesia refusers in Dronten, organised by Jan Maassen, with historian Ger Harmsen speaking and a 'comité eerherstel' formed to explore rehabilitation. Trees Soenito-Heyligers is honoured as defender of many refusers; supporting bodies include t
Well-attended meeting in Amsterdam: East Timor must be free
De Waarheid report (24 Nov 1988, p.3) on a Komitee Indonesië solidarity evening in Amsterdam for East Timor, thirteen years after Fretilin's independence declaration. Francisca Fanggidaej, former MP from West Timor, says both Indonesians and East Timorese are victims of Suharto's regime; Fretilin's Abilio de Araujo pre
Murders (Suharto and the mass killings of 1965-66)
De Waarheid piece (2 Sep 1989, p.16) criticising Suharto's silence on the 1965-66 massacres, quoting Stanley Karnow and C.L. Sulzberger on the killings and estimates of 300,000 to one million dead. It notes mass arrests without trial of hundreds of thousands, including members of SOBSI, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat, and t