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
Ten torture cases to be used by Amnesty (The Guardian, 11 October 1973)
The Guardian, 11 Oct 1973, p.8, Peter Cole: Amnesty International launches Prisoner of Conscience Week with ten emblematic torture cases. One is an Indonesian woman, Mrs Sri Ambar[...] (surname cut off in OCR), head of the women's department of the SOBSI trade union federation, who after arrest in 1966 was stripped nak
TAPOL Bulletin no. 5, June 1974 (London campaign for Indonesian political prisoners). Covers mass transfers of tapols to Central Java workcamps (Nusakambangan, Cilacap), British and Australian policy, IGGI aid, press bans and the January 1974 Malari aftermath. A short item, 'Ex-Gerwani Members Also in Trouble' (p.5), r
Daily World, 16 May 1975: Connecticut towns hear peace delegates (WILPF-WIDF seminar)
Page 9 of the Daily World (New York, 16 May 1975) with a Connecticut report on delegates to a WILPF-WIDF disarmament seminar. They included British woman Carmel Budiardjo, who was in Djakarta in 1965 and imprisoned for three years while her husband remained jailed after ten years; she says over a million were killed an
Ford Questioned on CIA Activity in Indonesia (FBIS, 16 Oct 1975)
FBIS item: Radio Peace and Progress (Moscow, in Indonesian, 16 Oct 1975) commentary on Ratna Sari Dewi's letter asking President Ford to explain the CIA's role in 1965. She cites hundreds of thousands killed and tens of thousands jailed without trial. A Dutch editor is quoted saying PKI, SOBSI, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakya
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
Freedom, by Sugiarti Siswadi (New York Times, 10 Jan 1976)
Poem 'Freedom' by Sugiarti Siswadi, printed in the New York Times on 10 January 1976, p. 20 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers). The supplied file contains only the title, author and citation header, not the poem text. The catalogue records Sugiarti Siswadi as a member-name hit and notes a Dutch-language version elsewhere
TAPOL Bulletin no. 15, April 1976. Editorial links East Timor killings to the 1965-66 massacres; the issue devotes pages to a mimeographed East Java massacre report and to translated fictional accounts (Gestapu: Indonesian Short Stories, ed. Harry Aveling). Gerwani appears incidentally: victims included members of the
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
New Internationalist, Oct 1976: 'Journalists in Jail' (Indonesia entries incl. Sudjinah, Lies Sukatno)
Two-page Amnesty-based list of journalists detained or missing as of 23 April 1976, in New Internationalist (October 1976). Its Indonesia entries include 'Mrs Rusijati '65', 'Miss Sudjinah '66' and 'Lies Sukatno '66', giving only arrest years; no Gerwani link is stated. OCR is rough and the layout mixes countries.
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
TAPOL Bulletin no. 20, February 1977. Leads on East Timor massacres and torture; also a Jakarta detention-centre riot, US and Dutch aid, a Sulawesi tapol interview, 'double counting' of releases and non-involvement certificates. Item 'Plantungan to Close?' (p.4) reports about 100 women tapols moved to Bulu Prison, Sema
TAPOL Bulletin no. 21, April 1977 (London). Covers the ICRC mission to seven Indonesian detention sites, Carter and human rights, East Timor testimony, Kopkamtib detention legality, official denials and the May elections. It prints a smuggled letter from a Salemba tapol to the Red Cross describing starvation, beri-beri
TAPOL Bulletin no. 25, December 1977 (London). Focuses on the 20 December releases from Buru and Tanjung Kasau, new 'resettlement' labour camps, the Amnesty report and Sudomo interview, the Sawito trial, student protests, and press reports (Newsweek, Economist, Age, Asahi, De Telegraf, FEER) on Buru. Page 11 rebuts Jen
Asian Women and Political Repression (poem), Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Winter 1978
Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Vol. IV no. 2 (Winter 1978, 'International Feminism'), carrying on p. 32 the poem 'Asian Women and Political Repression' by Sugiarti Siswadi, in which women declare they are no longer only wives of heroes but 'worker soldiers'. A headnote begins 'Mrs. Siswadi, a well-known Indonesian poet,
Asian Women and Political Repression (poem), Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Winter 1978
Quest: A Feminist Quarterly, Vol. IV no. 2 (Winter 1978, 'International Feminism'), carrying on p. 32 the poem 'Asian Women and Political Repression' by Sugiarti Siswadi, in which women declare they are no longer only wives of heroes but 'worker soldiers'. A headnote begins 'Mrs. Siswadi, a well-known Indonesian poet,
US Embassy Jakarta cable, 19 Jan 1978: P.E.N. 'Freedom to Write' list of imprisoned Indonesian writers
Declassified Jakarta cable (Jakarta 0836, 19 Jan 1978, signed Masters) on P.E.N.'s list of 40 imprisoned Indonesian writers; the embassy has records on nine. Entry 30 reads 'Mrs. Sugiarti Siswadi - reportedly arrested in 1966'. It also notes Pramoedya on Buru, and says those listed were apparently held for suspected in
US Embassy Jakarta cable, 19 Jan 1978: P.E.N. 'Freedom to Write' list of imprisoned Indonesian writers
Declassified Jakarta cable (Jakarta 0836, 19 Jan 1978, signed Masters) on P.E.N.'s list of 40 imprisoned Indonesian writers; the embassy has records on nine. Entry 30 reads 'Mrs. Sugiarti Siswadi - reportedly arrested in 1966'. It also notes Pramoedya on Buru, and says those listed were apparently held for suspected in
'Children are tortured' (The Observer, 14 October 1979)
The Observer, 14 Oct 1979, p.2, Ian Mather, 'Children are tortured': on an Amnesty International report on torture of children in many countries. For Indonesia it reports that the daughter of Sri Ambar, a woman trade unionist, was tortured in her mother's presence and disappeared, that many children arrested in 1965 re
FCO 15/2701: Political Detainees in Indonesia (1980)
British FCO file FCO 15/2701 (1980), 'Political detainees in Indonesia': Amnesty International's April 1980 letter and memorandum to the UK government before the IGGI meeting, on release of B-category prisoners, restrictions on ex-detainees, missing persons and unfair A-category trials, plus TAPOL Bulletin extracts (No
TAPOL Bulletin No. 41/42, Sep/Nov 1980: restrictions on ex-prisoners, doctors barred from practice
Double issue of TAPOL Bulletin (London), no. 41/42, September/November 1980. An article on ex-prisoners' continuing restrictions says many doctors are still refused permission to practise, naming Dr Sutanti Aidit with Drs Sumanto, Sumiarsih and Djajus; ex-tapols also cannot testify in court without a 'certificate of no
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. 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-
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
South China Sunday Morning Post, 26 Apr 1998, p.8, Jenny Grant: report on the trial in Medan of the sorcerer Datuk (Achmad Suradji), accused of killing 42 young women. After first confessing he retracted and blamed 'an outlawed communist women's group known as Gerwani', claiming police forced his confession; the articl
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
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
TAPOL Bulletin No. 159, Aug/Sep 2000: Carmel Budiardjo's visit to Indonesia (Sri Ambar, Sulami, YPKP)
TAPOL Bulletin no. 159 (Aug/Sep 2000), with Carmel Budiardjo's report on a visit to Indonesia (pp. 12-14). She meets some twenty former Bukit Duri prison mates, among them Sri Ambar, frail after a stroke (p. 12); visits the Tangerang home of Ibu Sulami, founder in April 1999 of YPKP, the foundation investigating the 19
Gerry van Klinken's 2001 article mapping the post-Suharto contest over the national past: statist New Order history (film, Lubang Buaya rituals, book bans), versus societal streams including Sulami's 1999 truth-seeking organisation and Pramoedya. Historiographical context.