US Consulate Medan telegram, 6 December 1965: after the PKI's 'virtual destruction' in Sumatra the Army extends control over civil service, press, youth, National Front and Hansip. Shows the institutional consolidation that followed the killings.
Peking Review Vol. 9 No. 18, 29 April 1966, a Chinese weekly. Besides Cultural Revolution and Afro-Asian Journalists' Association material, it carries Chinese protests against Indonesian anti-China outrages and a Renmin Ribao commentary, 'Right-Wing Reactionaries Plunge Indonesia into a Bloodbath' (p. 25), quoting New
US Embassy airgram A-808, 29 June 1966: the Army Military Police Corps (CPM) screens ministry officials for 'subversive opinions' about 30 September under Supersemar authority, using a loyalty questionnaire. Shows the bureaucratic purge and screening of 'involvement'.
US Embassy airgram A-65, 3 Aug 1966, recording anthropologist James Fox's account of Army executions of communists on Roti, Sawu and Timor and his estimate of 800-1,000 killed in the region. Eastern Indonesia context; Gerwani not discussed in the excerpt.
US Embassy airgram A-218, 5 Nov 1966, on a Central Java trip showing the Army's 'ironclad grip': roadblocks, meeting bans, ID checks, prison numbers and ex-prisoners as pariahs. Women appear only as the Army lieutenant's wife in village pacification.
PhD dissertation in political science (Claremont, 1967) by Jerry Mark Silverman on national communism and polycentrism, 1919-1966, using the 'political community' framework with the PKI as case study (Section III, chs. 4-5 on PKI independence and ambivalence). It confines its Indonesian analysis to the period before 1
Edward J. Fox, University of Chicago MA dissertation (1968; the catalogue title says PhD) on the Indonesian armed forces' control programme and the pattern of violence from October 1965 to early 1968. Gerwani appears only in passing: a footnote cites 1.75 million members and notes its self-dissolution (p.32), and one u
New York Times, 27 Oct 1968, p.5, Terence Smith from Jakarta: Sukarno lives under house arrest at Bogor and was interrogated in Sept-Oct 1968 about clandestine contacts with former associates, after Communists captured in the Blitar operations (2,000 killed or captured, including PKI chairman Oloan Hutapea) implicated
Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, spring 1970) on the PKI underground and army counter-campaign after 1965, from the Blitar and Purwodadi operations to political prisoners and Moscow/Beijing exile factions. Gerwani appears once (p.50): arrests of former Communists 'including members of Gerwani (the P
Roger Paget's 1970 Cornell PhD thesis on how student and youth action groups, culminating in KAMI, emerged after 1 October 1965 and helped undermine Sukarno. Gerwani appears in several passages: action fronts demanded its banning (p. 44) and its offices were ransacked (p. 63); Herlina denounced it for not fighting Mala
Journal article by Reuven Kahane (Contributions to Asian Studies, vol. 5, 1974) giving a structural-sociological explanation of the 1965 coup and army dominance in Indonesia: religious-class polarisation, failing Sukarno-era control mechanisms, and the army's rise. Gerwani appears only in a footnote listing PKI-affilia
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
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
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. 54 (London, Nov 1982), 24 pages, mostly on West Papua, East Timor, Borobudur and military law. Its 'Spotlight on Two Tapols' profiles Napsiah, a veteran of Pesindo/Perwari who joined the PKI in 1949, helped build Gerwani in East Java and sat on the PKI East Java committee. Arrested in 1968 after the
Issue no. 71 (September 1985) of TAPOL Bulletin, the British campaign for Indonesian political prisoners. It carries an anonymous ex-prisoner's article on the 'G30S/PKI' symbol, reports on death-row prisoners, the Gatot defence statement, harassment of ex-prisoners and military reorganisation. Gerwani appears only once
TAPOL Bulletin no. 80 (London, April 1987) on East Timor, the 1987 elections, the Societies Law and ex-tapol rights. A short 'Gerwani members arrested' item reports a woman called 'Mrs Har', said to be a former Gerwani member, arrested with her three daughters in Tanjung Priok (14 Feb 1987), and another alleged Gerwani
TAPOL Bulletin no. 83 (London, Oct 1987) on East Timor at the UN, Kedung Ombo, labour unrest, Muslim trials and transmigration. A boxed item 'Serving 26 years for a 20-year sentence' profiles Siti Sundari, 66, a founding member of Gerwis and Gerwani, PKI candidate in 1955 and 1964 central committee candidate, jailed si
Stewart K. Sutley's MA thesis (Political Science, McGill, 1988) applies Tilly and Aya's 'political conflict' model to the PKI-Army struggle of 1949-65, arguing the PKI's state-within-a-state depended on Sukarno and was destroyed after the army struck at the president. Gerwani is treated only as the PKI's 'women's front
TAPOL Bulletin no. 90 (London, Dec 1988): East Timor, Golkar congress, executions of two 1965 Cakrabirawa prisoners, Kopkamtib replaced by Bakorstanas, 'clean-self/clean-environment' screening, and Suharto's role in the G30S. In the G30S article, a section on a 'myth coming unstuck' says the 1965 press claims that Gerw
TAPOL Bulletin no. 94 (London, Aug 1989), mostly on East Timor (new arrests, Prabowo-led operations, Bishop Belo's UN letter, asylum seekers), student trials in Yogyakarta, Kedung Ombo, Lampung evictions, forestry and population control. Gerwani is not mentioned. Relevant context: ex-tapols' 'ET' identity cards and 'cl
FBIS item (ANTARA, 23 Aug 1989): armed forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Nurhadi Purwosaputro said the release of Sundari Abdulrahman, 68, former chairwoman of Gerwani, followed completion of her term and presidential remission. She had been sentenced to life in 1976 in Tanjungkarang and held in Tangerang Women's Prison. He
The Guardian (Weekend Guardian), 8 Sept 1990, p.A4, John Gittings, 'The black hole of Bali': long feature on the 1965 massacre (250,000 or more killed), how the killings were organised by the army under Suharto, the Aidit/PKI role, the US list of communists (Martens/Kadane) and US encouragement, survivors ('Tapols') an
TAPOL Bulletin no. 101 (London, Oct 1990), covering West Papuan border raids, Suharto's 'de-Suharto-ization', new litsus screening rules, Petisi 50 and East Timor at the UN. A page on US embassy collusion reproduces Kathy Kadane's May 1990 interview with ex-deputy chief Jack Lydman about embassy-compiled PKI name lists
TAPOL Bulletin no. 132 (December 1995), London-based human rights newsletter, mostly on East Timor (Xanana Gusmao interview, embassy asylum bids), Sri-Bintang Pamungkas's trial, labour unrest and Freeport. Relevant to 1965: 'The spectre haunting Suharto' on the regime's 'formless organisations' communist myth (p.13-16)
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-
FBIS translated excerpt (Suara Pembaruan, 7 Aug 1996): at a meeting of senior journalists, Information Minister Harmoko warned of PKI penetration of the press and propaganda, praising the New Order. Mrs S.K. Trimurti, 84, was among those given accident insurance cards. Gerwani is not named.
Hermawan Sulistyo's 1997 Arizona State history PhD, 'The Forgotten Years', studies the 1965-66 killings in Jombang-Kediri, East Java, from interviews and documents, finding no single national pattern and stressing local conflict and military-backed operations. Gerwani appears in passing: its claimed 1.75 million member
The Guardian, 23 May 1998, p.24, Martin Woollacott, 'Chaos at Crocodile Hole': comment on Suharto's fall, arguing it is no triumph and that his legacy of division (military vs Islamists, rich vs poor, ethnic and religious tensions) leaves the country fragile. It opens with the Crocodile Hole (Lubang Buaya) shrine, whos
South China Sunday Morning Post, 27 Sep 1998, p.8, Jenny Grant: after Suharto's fall, historians and politicians call for a reassessment of the 1965 coup and killings; the government has dropped compulsory screening of the New Order propaganda film. The article repeats that members of 'the communist women's organisatio