The forgotten massacre: 'More killed than in Vietnam so far'
Tribune (Sydney), 21 Jan 1970, p. 8: extract from Hong Kong's Eastern Horizon of letters by an Indonesian writing as 'Barbro Karabuda' on the 1965-66 massacre and prisoners (official 86,000 detainees; torture; Army extortion). The writer finds Tanti Aidit in Bukit Duri women's prison in Jakarta with Aidit's mother-in-l
The forgotten massacre: 'More killed than in Vietnam so far'
Tribune (Sydney), 21 Jan 1970, p. 8: extract from Hong Kong's Eastern Horizon of letters by an Indonesian writing as 'Barbro Karabuda' on the 1965-66 massacre and prisoners (official 86,000 detainees; torture; Army extortion). The writer finds Tanti Aidit in Bukit Duri women's prison in Jakarta with Aidit's mother-in-l
FCO 24/1701: Political Detainees in Indonesia (1973)
UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office file FCO 24/1701 (1973), a TNA volume on political detainees in Indonesia. It holds briefing notes, minutes and parliamentary questions on the 1973 State Visit, the Budiardjo case and Amnesty International's campaign, plus a bound copy of Amnesty's 1973 'Indonesia Special'. In that re
FCO 15/1941: Political Detainees in Indonesia (1974-75)
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office file FCO 15/1941 (1974-75), 'Political detainees in Indonesia': ministerial letters on the National Peace Council and TAPOL campaigns, Research Department notes on Carmel Budiardjo, UN human-rights briefing, ICRC/Buru material and TAPOL Bulletin extracts. Gerwani features in the
TAPOL Bulletin no. 6, August 1974. Covers the Hariman Siregar (Malari) trial, tapol forced labour on the Cilacap oil pipeline and Nusakambangan cement works, prison conditions, Australian and British military links and trials of 1965 detainees. It reports on Plantungan women's camp (food, commander Major Prayoga, death
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
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
Daily World, 26 July 1975: Women leaders jailed by Indonesian junta
Daily World (New York), 26 July 1975, p. 9: Foreign Department report that a Jakarta court on 16 June 1975 sentenced four women after a five-month trial: Sulami (general secretary of the Indonesian Women's Movement, 20 years), Sudjinah (magazine editor, 18), Sri Ambar (SOBSI women's section, 15) and Suharti Alimarkaban
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
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
South China Morning Post, 26 Nov 1975, p.22, Kenneth Whiting (AP), 'Indonesia: a fresh start': ten-year retrospective on the 1965 coup and 'bloodbath' (about 300,000 killed, 100,000 jailed, 20,000 political detainees still held), with oil-led economic recovery. A short passage says women were killed if believed to be p
TAPOL Bulletin no. 16, June 1976, issued before the IGGI meeting. Contents: smuggled letter on prison torture including sexual torture of women (some miscarried), Fraser congressional hearings with Benedict Anderson, Sudomo interview on categories A/B/C and Buru, analysis of Oei Tju Tat's trial, Papuan killings, Amnest
TAPOL Bulletin no. 18, October 1976. Editorial 'Eleven Years' and reports on Sudomo's reneged release pledges, new arrests, IGGI's $2,400m credit, the death sentence on Sgt-Maj Marsudi for the generals' killings (with testimony that Lubang Buaya training was officially organised by the Air Force), an inside account of
TAPOL Bulletin no. 19, January 1977. Leads on 'release equals transmigration': Sudomo's 1 Dec 1976 release of 2,500 B-category tapols into 'transmigration centres' and Buru. Reports that women tapols at Plantungan (since 1971) were moved to Bulu prison, Semarang, apparently for transfer to a 'hard-core' women's camp at
Women round the World: Indonesian Women (Kinesis, June 1977)
Kinesis (Vancouver feminist paper), June 1977, p.10, 'Women round the World': a section on Indonesian women. It says Gerwani, the largest women's organisation (over one million members), was banned for alleged complicity in the 1965 coup and blamed for atrocities; many members suffered torture and sexual abuse in inter
The Times of India, 6 Sep 1977, p.11 (Reuter, London, 4 Sep): Amnesty International lists 62 imprisoned or missing parliamentarians in 17 countries; Indonesia tops the list with 23, most held without trial since 1965 for links with the PKI, SOBSI, BTI or the women's organisation Gerwani. Named are Subandrio, Oei Tjoe T
TAPOL Bulletin no. 29 (London, August 1978): assessment of the 1977–78 prisoner releases, resettlement camps, ILO criticism, Wertheim on Suharto and the Latief trial, ex-tapol discrimination, and trials. Page 11 reports that Dr Tanti Aidit, widow of D.N. Aidit and a Gerwani member who ran a Gerwani clinic, is to be tri
TAPOL Bulletin no. 44 (London, March 1981): army takeover of the legal sector, Free-Aceh trials, Pramoedya's Buru novels harassed, East Timor, US human rights report. A short item (p.4) reports that eight women political prisoners long held in Bukit Duri were moved to Tangerang women's prison: Sulami (20 years), Sudjin
TAPOL Bulletin no. 47 (London, September 1981): East Timor offensive and the East Timor assembly's report, West Papuan refugees, Pramoedya's re-arrest, the new Procedural Code, and rape and lesbianism cases. Its new 'Spotlight on a Prisoner' profiles Suwardiningsih, the only woman full member of the PKI Central Committ
TAPOL Bulletin No. 105, Jun 1991: interview with former Timorese prisoner (Tangerang, 'Mama Sundari')
TAPOL Bulletin no. 105 (June 1991). In an interview (pp. 11-12) East Timorese ex-prisoner Domingas Coelho describes Tangerang women's prison from 1984, where she shared Blok Anggrek with two elderly PKI prisoners, Sundari Abdulrahaman ('Mama Sundari') and Tati, who nursed her and taught her embroidery, fieldwork and In
TAPOL Bulletin No. 133, February 1996
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-
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
Challenges of Political Rehabilitation in Post-New Order Indonesia: Gerwani (McGregor and Hearman, 2007)
McGregor and Hearman (2007) read Gerwani leaders Sulami's and Sudjinah's memoirs as political rehabilitation: distancing from the PKI, rebutting the Lubang Buaya slander, socialist critique and claims to citizenship. Key scholarly analysis of survivor memoirs.
TAPOL Bulletin No. 186, Apr 2007: Sulami's exhumation campaign; review of Kembang-kembang Genjer
TAPOL Bulletin no. 186 (April 2007). A feature (p. 19) notes Sulami's exhumation campaign and that Gerwani, before 1965 'the most active women's organisation', was banned and its members singled out. A review (pp. 21-24) of the book Kembang-kembang Genjer (foreword by Saskia Wieringa) summarises Sumilah, Tami (Njoto's
Generating History: Violence and the Risks of Remembering for Families of Former Political Prisoners (Conroe, 2012)
PhD dissertation (University of Michigan, 2012) by Andrew Conroe: an ethnography of former political prisoners (eks-tapol) and their children and grandchildren in Yogyakarta, centred on the group Fopperham, on memory, silence and uncertain family histories. Gerwani appears through family accounts and events: Bu Marni,
Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (Stroud, 2015)
Martha Stroud's 2015 UC Berkeley/UCSF medical-anthropology dissertation, based on fieldwork in Yogyakarta (2010-12), examines how the 1965-66 killings shape daily life through propaganda, surveillance, stigma, silence and justice. Gerwani appears mainly as the object of New Order propaganda: the Lubang Buaya mutilation
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
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
From Indonesia with Love: Political Prisoners and their Pen Pals (Hearman, 2020)
Hearman's 2020 article reconstructing the 1982-92 letters between ex-Gerwani militant Pudji Aswati, imprisoned for subversion, and English Quaker author Patricia Cleveland-Peck, showing how befriending became a transnational activist network. Rare transnational Gerwani prisoner correspondence.
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: Opinion - Umi Sardjono and communism phobia (the annual ghost)
English edition of the Tempo column 'Umi Sardjono and the Annual Ghost' (4 Oct 2021) arguing that 1965 history is still black and white. It uses Umi Sardjono's life (arrest without trial, Bukit Duri, Plantungan to 1979), Gerwani's Gerwis origins, a mid-1960s membership of 1.5 million, literacy classes, her immigration