FO 371/180318: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [9] (Oct 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180318 (Oct 1965): Djakarta embassy telegrams, minutes and copied US cables on the 30 September affair. Covers the anti-PKI demonstration and burning of PKI HQ, Sukarno's return, Suharto and Nasution, and Anglo-American debate on backing the generals. Only Gerwani-relevant item: the 10 Oct
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
Indonesia: Army nets 1,500 Reds (New York Herald Tribune, European ed., 11 October 1965)
New York Herald Tribune (European ed.), 11 Oct 1965, Reuters report 'Army Nets 1,500 Reds' from Djakarta. Says the army arrested at least 1,500 Communists, including members of 'the Gerwani Communist women's movement, some members of which are alleged to have tortured the six army generals', plus PKI band and choir mem
Mass arrests in Jakarta: anti-Communist drive (The Times, 11 October 1965)
The Times, 11 Oct 1965, p.9, whole page scan; only the first article, 'Mass arrests in Jakarta: anti-Communist drive', concerns Indonesia (other items cover Aden, Cuba, Bulgaria, etc.). It reports 1,500 detained, the burning of PKI headquarters, Muslim demands that Aidit be hanged, and that arrested Communists include
Sukarno seeks to restore orderly rule (Globe and Mail, 12 October 1965)
Globe and Mail, 12 Oct 1965, p.8 (NYT/AP/Reuters wire): Sukarno returns to Jakarta and urges normal conditions two weeks after the 30 September coup; the army is cracking down on the PKI, with about 1,000 arrests. Malaysian radio reports a Muslim crowd sacked the Medan branch office of Gerwani, 'the Communist women's o
Further Report on Confessions of Njono (FBIS, 2 Dec 1965)
FBIS item (ANTARA, 2 Dec 1965) reporting Njono's army-publicised interrogation: PKI Politburo allegedly planned the coup from July to August 1965 under Aidit. Gerwani is named among the organisations expected to support military operations and, with Pemuda Rakyat, BTI and SOBSI, in Njono's Jakarta force. Lubang Buaya i
Airgram A-398: List of PKI Leaders and Their Whereabouts, 17 Dec 1965
US Embassy airgram A-398, 17 Dec 1965, listing PKI leadership bodies after May 1965 and fugitive leaders' whereabouts. Places Suharti (Gerwani chair, head of the PKI women's department), Umi Sardjono, Setiati Surasto and Mudjiatun in PKI organs; no women in the whereabouts list.
Indonesian Plot: Tribunal Verdict on Njono Due Today (Canberra Times, 21 February 1966)
Canberra Times, 21 Feb 1966, p. 6 (AAP-Reuter): the military tribunal trying PKI leader Njono is due to give its verdict; prosecution demanded death. His government-appointed woman lawyer, Mrs Trees Sunito, had 32 hours to prepare. Foreign press barred; Chinese agency criticism of the trial noted. Gerwani not named.
Indonesian Plot: Tribunal Verdict on Njono Due Today (Canberra Times, 21 February 1966), duplicate
Canberra Times, 21 Feb 1966, p. 6 (AAP-Reuter): the military tribunal trying PKI leader Njono is due to give its verdict; prosecution demanded death. His government-appointed woman lawyer, Mrs Trees Sunito, had 32 hours to prepare. Foreign press barred; Chinese agency criticism of the trial noted. Gerwani not named.
Dossier of a slaughter
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Dossier of a slaughter
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Washington Post, 6 Jan 1968: 'Red Defenders Held in Djakarta' (Trees Sunito)
Washington Post (6 January 1968, p. A9), an AP report headed 'Red Defenders Held in Djakarta'. Per the sweep log, it says woman lawyer Trees Sunito, who defended Njono, has been arrested and is described as a former leader of the women's section of the Communist Party. Only the page header is in the text; the article b
RAND memorandum RM-5753-PR (Feb 1969), Guy J. Pauker, 'The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Indonesia'. Argues, from trial records, that Aidit planned the 30 September action against the generals and traces PKI strategy, the Chinese turn, the agrarian 'unilateral actions' and the killings (up to 300,000), and th
Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup (van der Kroef, 1970)
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
Interpretations of the 1965 Indonesian Coup: a review of the literature (van der Kroef, 1970)
Review essay by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, winter 1970) surveying interpretations of the 1965 coup (Wertheim, Rey, the Cornell Report, Utrecht, Pluvier, Hughes, Nugroho/Saleh) from a pro-PKI-complicity standpoint. Several passages mention Gerwani members' role at Halim; he cites 'Mrs Djamilah's' confessi
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
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
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
The 30 September Movement: a political movement of the armed forces or an intelligence operation? (Holtzappel, 1979)
Journal article by Coen Holtzappel (Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1979) analysing the Untung and Njono trial records to argue the 30 September Movement was steered by Air Force and Army intelligence, with Sjam's Pringgodani group deliberately compromising the PKI and Aidit. Gerwani is mentioned only once, in a footnote
TAPOL Bulletin no. 34 (London, June 1979, 20 pp.): exposes inconsistencies in KOPKAMTIB release figures, resettlement camps in Kalimantan and Buru, the student trials, release oath and ex-tapol discrimination, the Nijmegen psycho-test cover-up, TAPOL's research on 366 1965 trials, IGGI aid. Gerwani is not named; one it
TAPOL Bulletin No. 37, January 1980: Indonesia's Political Trials
TAPOL Bulletin no. 37 (London, January 1980): editorial on the end of KOPKAMTIB's release plan, plus Julie Southwood's long study of 1,014 political trials since 1966. It notes the 1965 Lubang Buaya claim that communist women castrated the generals, and the 1975 subversion trial of Gerwani's Sulami and Sudjinah, with S
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
The Forgotten Years: Mass Slaughter in Jombang-Kediri 1965-1966 (Sulistyo, 1997)
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
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