Gerwani and the Perfumed Ghost (Historia, preview)
Historia article by Martin Sitompul (preview only): after destroying Gerwani the New Order used the 'kuntilanak' image to restrict progressive women's movements; quotes Wieringa at a Kuntilanak Wangi discussion. Partial text.
Berita Yudha, 4 October 1966
Berita Yudha, 4 Oktober 1966. Report of a rally of some 3,500 women of KOWANI, KAWI and BPOW at Lubang Buaya (3 Oct) where, led by Ibu Tien Soeharto, they swore to 'eradicate the gerwani/pki mentality'; Ibu Soeharto says they 'practised obscenities without limit'.
Berita Yudha, 5 October 1966: interview with Ibu Tien Soeharto
Berita Yudha, 5 Oktober 1966: wawancara Ibu Tien Soeharto. Armed Forces Day issue with a front-page interview with Ibu Tien Soeharto, 'May our children not inherit the barbarity and immorality of Gerwani', and Perwari conferring 'Penyelamat Revolusi' on Suharto.
Press (Christchurch), 8 Oct 1966, short item with photo: anti-Communist students demonstrating in Jakarta demand the arrest and trial of Hartini Sukarno, the President's second wife, for economic deviation, affiliation with Communist leaders and patronage of Gerwani, whose members are said to have played a major role i
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
Angkatan Bersendjata, 18 October 1966
Angkatan Bersendjata, 18 Oktober 1966. Minister Soetjipto says the 'Old Order' denied that Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat 'immorally' trained at Lubang Buaya while the New Order has found photo and film documentation made by participants.
Sinar Harapan, 17 Dec 1966: Dharsono at KAMI Puteri Mother's Day commemoration
Sinar Harapan, 17 Desember 1966. Dharsono at a KAMI Puteri Hari Ibu commemoration says 'Gerwani/Gestapu/PKI' honoured heroes only as a mask; a second Gerwani hit in a serialised verdict digest.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 27 April 1967. South Kalimantan governor Aberani Sulaiman says mothers must 'eradicate women of the Gerwani type, the Lubang Buaya type' to realise 'true Indonesian women'; KOWANI Kartini meeting.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 9 July 1967 (Weekly Edition)
Angkatan Bersendjata, 9 Juli 1967 (edisi Mingguan). Family column 'Jadilah seorang wanita yang baik' defines womanhood through motherhood and invokes 'how savage and cruel Gerwani women' were in torturing the generals, using the slander as a moral counterexample.
Former PKI treasurer arrested
Amigoe di Curaçao, 6 Sept 1967: Mrs Djoebaedah, former treasurer of the PKI women's movement (i.e. Gerwani, not named), was arrested in Jakarta after being a fugitive. She is accused of taking part in the torture and murder of six generals on 1 October 1965; documents were reportedly found. Typical New Order framing of
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.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 1 October 1967 (Weekly Edition)
Angkatan Bersendjata, 1 Oktober 1967 (edisi Mingguan). Second-anniversary issue with a front-page lead 'Dianiaja' alleging the generals were tortured and mutilated and contradicting Sukarno; the richest Lubang Buaya slander item in this run.
Berita Yudha, 24 June 1968: 2 Gerwani activists and 10 PKI cell members arrested
Berita Yudha, 24 Juni 1968: '2 Aktivis Gerwani dan 10 orang sel PKI ditangkap'. Kodim 0504 arrested Suprijanti (21) and Turminah (23), 'ex-Gerwani activists' who allegedly 'confessed' to helping torture and kill the generals at Lubang Buaya at a young age.
Berita Yudha, 25 June 1968
Berita Yudha, 25 Juni 1968. Front page prints portrait photographs of Tuminah (23) and Suprijanti (21) as 'ex-Gerwani activists' who 'confessed' to helping kill the generals, the visual follow-up to the 24 June report.
Berita Yudha, 15 October 1968: 70 percent of prostitutes embraced by Gerwani/PKI
Berita Yudha, 15 Oktober 1968: '70 Prosen wanita P dirangkul G'wani/PKI'. Jakarta police chief claims nearly 70% of prostitutes in Central Java and Jakarta had been 'embraced' by Gerwani/PKI, 'proven' by Lubang Buaya; a core New Order sexual slander claim.
Indonesia and the Wertheim Committee: Nijmegen congress and Dutch aid to Suharto
Long De Tijd opinion piece by Arie Kuiper (24 Apr 1969) on the Nijmegen student congress and the Wertheim Indonesia Committee's call to halt Dutch aid to Suharto's regime. It acknowledges hundreds of thousands killed and many political prisoners but blames Muslim hatred and defends Suharto; it repeats that generals wer
The revolution passes Indonesia by: interview with Ernst Utrecht
Second half of a De Volkskrant interview (29 Aug 1970) with Prof. Ernst Utrecht on his book on Indonesia ahead of Suharto's Dutch visit. Utrecht says the Jakarta branches of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat "wanted to take part and did take part" in the 1965 coup, that the PKI leadership said these were independent organisati
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.
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.
Skewed conclusions from Sukarno's letters: De Telegraaf commentary on Gerwani's role
De Telegraaf commentary by Frank de Jong (26 Sep 1973) attacking NRC conclusions drawn from Sukarno letters published by Ratna Sari Dewi. It asserts as "established beyond dispute" that thousands of Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani members took part in the abduction and slow torture of the six generals, repeating the slander.
Letters: Suharto's murderous fear of old, loyal communists
Reader's letter in NRC Handelsblad (6 Jul 1985) answering a plea for clemency for old communists. The writer asserts the Lubang Buaya generals' murder was 'historically' the PKI's work, 'assisted by the communist women of the Gerwani', cites televised exhumation, and attacks Pramoedya's Nobel candidacy. Repeats the New
The trauma of 1965 itches and nags
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
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.
The Birth of the New Order State in Indonesia: Sexual Politics and Nationalism (Wieringa, 2001)
Front matter only (title, contents, abstract) of Wieringa's ISS working paper 332 (Feb 2001) arguing the New Order legitimated itself through sexual politics, the military's 30-year slander of Gerwani. Body of the paper missing from the scan.
Gerwani, Stigmatisation and the New Order (Ratna Mustika Sari, 2007)
Ratna Mustika Sari's 2007 book from her 2005 UGM thesis on the stigmatisation of Gerwani as a New Order power strategy, inspired by Wieringa and her Syarikat research on women victims in Kulonprogo and Sleman. Early Indonesian-language academic study of the stigma.
The stigma of the 'wild women' in Indonesia (Anett Keller, 2016)
Anett Keller's German briefing (March 2016, Stiftung Asienhaus) on the neglected gender dimension of 1965: Lubang Buaya slander, the film and monument, tattoo hunts, sexual torture, forced marriages of widows, Plantungan and 'State Ibuism'. Written after the IPT 1965.
Sexual politics: slander against women's organisations after independence (Pohan, 2018)
Muslim Pohan's 2018 short article on the sexual politics and slander against women's organisations in the shift to the New Order, relying on Wieringa; includes the army's takeover of the army-wives' organisation Persit and Kowani dropping 8 March. Secondary synthesis.
Women suppressed, women resisting (Historia, 2018)
Historia feature (2018) on how the New Order subordinated the women's movement after 1965, branding politically minded women 'like Gerwani' and portraying Gerwani as beautiful but cruel, and how independent organising revived from the 1980s. Draws on Suryakusuma and Murniati.