FO 371/180320: Gilchrist Despatch of 8 October 1965 on the Coup and Counter-Coup
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180320 (Oct-Nov 1965): Gilchrist's despatch no. 13 of 8 Oct 1965 on the coup and counter-coup, plus telegrams, NATO and Commonwealth reports and Chinese/Soviet/Hanoi reactions. The despatch lists GERWANI among 'chief suspects' (p. 11) and says members of PKI youth and women's groups took p
FO 371/180322: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [13] (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180322 (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams quoting Antara on the post-coup purge, Sukarno versus the generals, Medan and Central Java. Gerwani items: tel. 2418 (2 Nov, p. 52) reports a Kowani/women's congress move to expel Gerwani members; tel. 2421 (p. 57) quotes Suharto naming 'Pemud
FO 371/180323: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [14] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180323 (c. 4-16 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams, Antara extracts and Foreign Office correspondence on the PKI's destruction, Subandrio, Nasution and Sukarno. Gerwani items: tel. 2480 (p. 39) reports a 8 Nov Jakarta rally of women's organisations demanding dissolution of the PKI and Gerwani;
FO 371/180324: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [15] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180324 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [15]': telegrams and letters from Djakarta, Washington and Peking, November 1965, plus appended US and Canadian reports. It records Sukarno's Heroes Day speech, Adam Malik's view of the Sukarno-generals stalemate and accounts of 30 September.
LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communists and Internal Politics (Oct-Nov 1965)
Compilation from the LBJ National Security File (ProQuest), Oct-Nov 1965: State Department memos, CIA intelligence memoranda and Indonesia Working Group situation reports on the 30 September Movement and army counter-moves. Gerwani appears only in passing: arrests of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat members (6 Oct), CIA claim
LBJ National Security File: Indonesian Military Coups, Oct-Nov 1965 (Airgram A-300 'The September 30 Affair')
Supplement to the LBJ National Security File (cables, Oct-Nov 1965), centred on the long Djakarta embassy airgram A-300 'The September 30 Affair' plus telegrams. A-300 repeats the Lubang Buaya account that the generals were 'taunted and humiliated' by Gerwani women before being killed, and says Gerwani members were pla
Dramatic funeral in Jakarta: lieutenant saved Nasution's life
Leeuwarder Courant, 7 October 1965, p. 1: report on the exhumation of the seven murdered army officers from the Lubang Buaya well and the generals' funeral, with Nasution's escape and Lt Tendean's death. It relays Suharto's televised claim that the bodies lay next to a base where the air force trained Pemuda Rakjat and
Demonstration against Subandrio
Leeuwarder Courant, 19 October 1965, p. 3: per Radio Jakarta the garrison commander Umar Wirahadikusumah temporarily banned the PKI in Jakarta and its allied organisations, including Sobsi and Gerwani, the latter accused of taking part in the torture and murder of six generals. Army 'cleansing operations' continue; Sub
The Anti-Communist Campaign in Indonesia: A Chronology (USIA R-158-65), Nov 1965
USIA Research and Reference Service report R-158-65 (November 1965), a chronology of the anti-Communist campaign in Indonesia, 1-20 October 1965, built on Indonesian and foreign radio and press. Gerwani entries: Suharto's 4 Oct TV statement linking the generals' murders to Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani training grounds; NU
CIA, Press information relating to insurgency and counterinsurgency: South and East Asia (Summary 6897), 4 November 1965
CIA Foreign Documents Division weekly digest (Summary No. 6897, 4 Nov 1965) of press on insurgency in South and East Asia. Its Indonesia section reproduces Army-controlled press (Angkatan Bersendjata, Duta Masjarakat) on the 30 September Movement, including claims that Gerwani volunteers trained at Lubang Buaja and moc
The Economist, 6 Nov 1965, p.594, 'Rings on a tree trunk', from a special correspondent in Jakarta: the army-inspired anti-communist campaign has gained its own momentum, with raids on PKI offices, arrests, 26 Antara correspondents detained, Aidit in hiding, Sukarno declaring Central Java in a 'state of war'. Wall graf
Sukarno will act against Reds (The Hindustan Times, 7 November 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 7 Nov 1965 (Reuter, Bogor, 6 Nov): Sukarno promises action against the PKI while the army hunts its members; Subandrio reports Sukarno scolding Njoto for the party's 'childish disease'. The armed forces bulletin says nine Gerwani 'suicide members' were killed by paratroopers when they blocked the r
Sukarno given list of suspected MPs; women demonstrate against Communists (South China Morning Post, 9 November 1965)
South China Morning Post, 9 Nov 1965, p.20 (Jakarta, 8 Nov): Sukarno is given a list of suspected PKI members of parliament; about 10,000 housewives, girl students and actresses marched to Suharto's HQ and the National Front office shouting support for Sukarno and the armed forces, denounced Gerwani, 'the PKI's women's
The Irish Times, 9 Nov 1965, p.44: Sukarno tells his Cabinet communism should not be suppressed but the PKI need not be kept; 102 MPs are listed for investigation; Malaya's Tunku accuses Subandrio of involvement in the coup. About 10,000 housewives and women students marched in Jakarta led by drum majorettes, demanding
Izvestiia, 22 Nov 1965: Sukarno meets commanders; anti-communist campaign continues
Izvestiia, 22 Nov 1965, p. 1, TASS: Sukarno at Bogor condemns journalists spreading 'fables' about 'atrocities' of the 30 September movement, orders a civil-service purge under Subandrio; a second item gives arrests (1,600 in South Kalimantan), citing Antara that all those arrested are members of PKI, Gerwani, Pemuda R
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
Almost overlords yesterday, almost outlaws today: what happened to the PKI? (Bloodworth, Straits Times, 1965)
The Straits Times, 8 December 1965, p. 12, analysis by Dennis Bloodworth on why the PKI failed. In passing it repeats the Lubang Buaya slander as fact: 'six leading generals were done to death, horribly mutilated by doe-eye girls of the PKI's Gerwani women's movement'. It then covers Sukarno's weakness, Nasution's esca
US Embassy Djakarta, Joint Sitrep No. 68, Telegram 1842 (22 December 1965)
US Embassy Djakarta telegram 1842, Joint Sitrep No. 68 (22 Dec 1965, Secret, sanitized, OCR rough). Reports Sukarno's speeches defending the PKI, including a Mother's Day gathering where he defended the PKI's women's affiliate (Gerwani), Nasution's 'basic guide' for crushing the PKI, the PNI purge, anti-Chinese violenc
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
Subandrio asks China for 'mutual respect'
Gereformeerd Gezinsblad roundup (8 Feb 1966, p.3) of Indonesia-China tension (Subandrio, student protest at Chinese embassy) and Indonesian-Japanese trade talks. One paragraph reports that communist Suradijo, shot while escaping, had tortured General Parman with a bamboo spear 'in front of a group of screaming women an
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
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
Angkatan Bersendjata, 15 October 1966
Angkatan Bersendjata, 15 Oktober 1966. 'Urap sari Mahmillub': at the Subandrio trial the court screened a documentary film of Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani training at Lubang Buaya, with Gerwani described as having 'lost their sense of womanliness' carrying weapons in slacks.
Executions in Indonesia: Untung and others, with Gerwani blamed
De Tijd commentary by C.H. Schaap (29 Sep 1967) on the executions of Untung and others for the 1965 coup. It says the generals were killed at Halim by "volunteers" trained by Maj. Sujono, "among them members of the communist women's organisation Gerwani", and notes the trials were broadcast and published.
The 1965 Coup in Indonesia: The CIA's Version (van der Kroef, 1976)
Critical review by Justus M. van der Kroef (Asian Affairs, Nov 1976) of the CIA's declassified 1968 report 'Indonesia-1965: The Coup That Backfired'. Takes issue with the CIA's claim that Lubang Buaya victims were not mutilated and that Gerwani/Pemuda Rakyat confessions were Army-contrived, quoting Gerwani member Djami
Killing off the communists (South China Morning Post, 17 July 1999)
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