Gerwani Archive
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GA-02041 1965-11-07 The Straits Times rel A

The Straits Times, 7 November 1965: Suicide squad women crushed by army tanks

Straits Times, 7 Nov 1965: suicide squad women crushed by army tanks

Straits Times, 7 Nov 1965 (world round-up, lead only). An army bulletin claimed a 'suicide squad' of Communist women, nine 'suicide members' of Gerwani, were killed trying to block army tanks in a Central Java town. Army-sourced propaganda framing of Gerwani women.

GA-00272 1965-11-10 Sunraysia Daily rel A

Women Denounce Reds (Sunraysia Daily, 10 Nov 1965)

Women Denounce Reds (Sunraysia Daily, 10 November 1965)

Sunraysia Daily (Mildura), 10 November 1965, p. 14, AAP/UPI report from Jakarta that 10,000 women (housewives, students, actresses) denounced Gerwani as 'a disgrace to Indonesian womanhood' and demanded its dissolution. They marched from Suharto's headquarters to the National Front with bands and batons and handed a pe

GA-00273 1965-11-10 Sunraysia Daily rel A

Women Denounce Reds (Sunraysia Daily, 10 Nov 1965)

Women Denounce Reds (Sunraysia Daily, 10 November 1965), duplicate

Sunraysia Daily (Mildura), 10 November 1965, p. 14, AAP/UPI report from Jakarta that 10,000 women (housewives, students, actresses) denounced Gerwani as 'a disgrace to Indonesian womanhood' and demanded its dissolution. They marched from Suharto's headquarters to the National Front with bands and batons and handed a pe

GA-01666 1965-12-10 Evening Post rel A

Sukarno the Key to Any Revolution in Indonesia (Evening Post, 10 December 1965)

Evening Post (Wellington), 10 Dec 1965, commentary on the Indonesian Communists after the 30 September coup. It repeats the Lubang Buaya atrocity claim that six generals were 'horribly mutilated by doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's movement and thrown into a well, with Communist youth dancing at Halim; als

GA-01669 1965-12-10 Evening Post rel A

Sukarno the Key to Any Revolution in Indonesia (Evening Post, 10 December 1965)

Sukarno the Key to Any Revolution in Indonesia (Evening Post, 10 December 1965), clipping on Gerwani claim

Clipping from the Evening Post of 10 Dec 1965: says Sukarno could not back the coup because of its brutality, and that six generals were 'horribly mutilated by doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's movement and thrown into a well, while Communist youth danced at Halim. This is the Lubang Buaya sexual-atrocity

GA-00288 1966-04-15 The Canberra Times rel A

Bloody orgy at Halim air base (Canberra Times, 15 April 1966)

Bloody Orgy at Halim Air Base (Canberra Times, 15 April 1966)

Canberra Times, 15 Apr 1966, p. 10: concluding part of a 'Special Correspondent' account repeating the Lubang Buaya slander. Claims 100 Gerwani women at Halim took razor blades, tortured and mutilated the generals, citing 'Mrs Djamilah' via the Djakarta Mail (15 Nov), singing 'People's Blood'. Adds Nasution escape narr

GA-00289 1966-04-15 The Canberra Times rel A

Bloody orgy at Halim air base (Canberra Times, 15 April 1966)

Bloody Orgy at Halim Air Base (Canberra Times, 15 April 1966), duplicate

Canberra Times, 15 Apr 1966, p. 10: concluding part of a 'Special Correspondent' account repeating the Lubang Buaya slander. Claims 100 Gerwani women at Halim took razor blades, tortured and mutilated the generals, citing 'Mrs Djamilah' via the Djakarta Mail (15 Nov), singing 'People's Blood'. Adds Nasution escape narr

GA-01673 1966-10-08 Press rel A

Students Demand Trial for Mrs Hartini Sukarno (Press, Christchurch, 8 October 1966)

Students Demand Trial for Mrs Hartini Sukarno (Press, Christchurch, 8 October 1966), caption clipping

Caption clipping from the Press (Christchurch), 8 Oct 1966: anti-Communist students in Jakarta demand Hartini Sukarno's arrest and trial for economic deviation, affiliation with Communist leaders and patronage of Gerwani, 'whose members are said to have played a major role' in the killing of six Army generals in Octobe

GA-03704 1971 Interim Reports Series, Modern Indonesia Project, Cornell University (compilation on Internet Archive) rel A

Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup)

Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, Preliminary Analysis of the October 1,

Internet Archive compilation on the 1965 events whose main text is Anderson and McVey's Cornell 'Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup' (1971), with source documents. It says Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat trainees at Lubang Buaya were drawn into the killings (pp. 22-23) while stressing the army-fed 'orgy' storie

GA-03705 1971 Interim Reports Series, Modern Indonesia Project, Cornell University (compilation on Internet Archive) rel A

Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup)

Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, Preliminary Analysis of the October 1,

Internet Archive compilation on the 1965 events whose main text is Anderson and McVey's Cornell 'Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup' (1971), with source documents. It says Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat trainees at Lubang Buaya were drawn into the killings (pp. 22-23) while stressing the army-fed 'orgy' storie

GA-02029 1971-01-13 Eastern Sun rel B

Eastern Sun, 13 January 1971: Young woman tells court she gouged general's eyes

Eastern Sun, 13 Jan 1971: young woman tells court she gouged general's eyes

Eastern Sun, 13 Jan 1971 (lead only). A young woman told a special court she gouged an army general's eyes with a knife before he was shot, on the eve of the 1965 coup. A confession-style Lubang Buaya claim of the kind that fed the sexual-slander narrative, here from a trial under the New Order.

GA-02046 1971-01-13 The Straits Times rel B

The Straits Times, 13 January 1971: Day woman gouged general's eyes with a knife

Straits Times, 13 Jan 1971: day woman gouged general's eyes with a knife

Straits Times, 13 Jan 1971 (lead only). Same story as the Eastern Sun item: a young woman told a special court she gouged an army general's eyes with a knife before he was shot, on the eve of the 1965 coup. A Lubang Buaya-style testimony from a New Order trial.

GA-00370 1975-05-20 Tribune rel A

Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons (Tribune, 20 Mei 1975)

Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons

Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga

GA-00371 1975-05-20 Tribune rel A

Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons (Tribune, 20 Mei 1975)

Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons

Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga

GA-00274 1975-07-30 Tharunka rel A

Indonesian Women (Tharunka, 30 Jul 1975)

Indonesian Women (Tharunka, 30 July 1975)

Tharunka (UNSW student paper), 30 July 1975, p. 8, article 'Indonesian Women' on women political prisoners after 1965. It describes Gerwani as the largest left women's organisation, targeted by a press campaign depicting members as sex-maniacs and Lubang Buaya participants, and banned in October 1965. It reports at lea

GA-00275 1975-07-30 Tharunka rel A

Indonesian Women: The Banned Women's Organisation (Tharunka, 30 Jul 1975)

Indonesian Women: The Banned Women's Organisation (Tharunka, 30 July 1975)

Tharunka (UNSW student paper), 30 July 1975, p. 8, clean OCR of the article 'Indonesian Women: The Banned Women's Organisation' (same article as GA-00274). It presents Gerwani as unaffiliated with the PKI, then attacked in 1965 by press stories of 'Gerwani prostitutes', 'obscene sex-dancing' and genital mutilation of g

GA-02944 1996 rel A

Sexual Metaphors in the Change from Sukarno's Old Order to Suharto's New Order in Indonesia (Wieringa, ISS working paper, 1996)

Sexual Metaphors in the Change from Sukarno's Old Order to Suharto's New Order (Wieringa, 1996 working paper)

Wieringa's Nov 1996 ISS working paper, the first English version of her argument that the New Order was born from a sexualised propaganda campaign against Gerwani (Oct 1965-Mar 1967 an 'extended coup'), with an interview with a former Gerwani cadre. Early statement of the thesis.

GA-02891 2007 rel A

Lubang Buaya: Myth, Misogyny and Massacre (Drakeley, 2007)

Drakeley's 2007 article analysing the army's Oct-Dec 1965 psywar 'Lubang Buaya horror story' as a misogynist attack on Gerwani and a driver of the killings, tracing escalating claims in Angkatan Bersendjata, Antara and others, including the 'confessions' of Djamilah, Sujati and Saina. Core analysis of the slander.

GA-03654 2015-10 Bhinneka (Yayasan Bhinneka Nusantara), October 2015 rel A

Bhinneka, October 2015: Half a Century of the 1965 Genocide (English edition)

Free English-language magazine issue edited by Soe Tjen Marching (Bhinneka Nusantara, Surabaya), October 2015, of victim testimonies. Ex-women prisoners Hartiti, Maria Goretti Sumilah and Theresia Kadmiyanti describe Gerwani-related interrogation: nude-dance and genital-mutilation accusations, searches for a 'Gerwani m

GA-03655 2015-10 Bhinneka (Yayasan Bhinneka Nusantara), October 2015 rel A

Bhinneka, October 2015: Half a Century of the 1965 Genocide (English edition)

Free English-language magazine issue edited by Soe Tjen Marching (Bhinneka Nusantara, Surabaya), October 2015, of victim testimonies. Ex-women prisoners Hartiti, Maria Goretti Sumilah and Theresia Kadmiyanti describe Gerwani-related interrogation: nude-dance and genital-mutilation accusations, searches for a 'Gerwani m

GA-02941 2019 rel B

Purifying Indonesia, Purifying Women: Komnas Perempuan and the 1965-1968 Anti-Communist Violence (van Doorn-Harder, 2019)

Purifying Indonesia, Purifying Women: Komnas Perempuan and the 1965-1968 Violence (van Doorn-Harder, 2019)

Nelly van Doorn-Harder's 2019 article on how Komnas Perempuan took up 1965 women survivors (2006 delegation, 2007 report), arguing the violence and stigma were justified as 'purification' and Gerwani women were cast as 'the most impure of all'. Gender and religious logic of impurity.