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
Indonesian Girl's Ordeal: Victim of 'Classic Conspiracy Case' (Canberra Times, 2 January 1971)
Canberra Times, 2 Jan 1971, p. 8 (Hugh Mabbett): reports the Sum Kuning case in Yogyakarta, where a 17-year-old egg seller was raped, then tortured by police and charged with a false report. Police tried to tar her with an accusation that in 1965, aged about 12, she was a Gerwani member; the court exposed the fabricati
Indonesian Girl's Ordeal: Victim of 'Classic Conspiracy Case' (Canberra Times, 2 January 1971), duplicate
Canberra Times, 2 Jan 1971, p. 8 (Hugh Mabbett): reports the Sum Kuning case in Yogyakarta, where a 17-year-old egg seller was raped, then tortured by police and charged with a false report. Police tried to tar her with an accusation that in 1965, aged about 12, she was a Gerwani member; the court exposed the fabricati
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
[MORE] Jan 1976: Writers in Prison (Barbara Sproul), with entry on Sudjinah
Issue of the New York media magazine [MORE] (January 1976) with Barbara Sproul's Amnesty-linked article on writers jailed by repressive regimes. Its Indonesia list describes Sudjinah as a writer who contributed short stories to Harian Rakjat and worked on the editorial staff of Api Kartini, journal of Gerwani; arrested
[MORE] Jan 1976: Writers in Prison (Barbara Sproul), with entry on Sudjinah
Issue of the New York media magazine [MORE] (January 1976) with Barbara Sproul's Amnesty-linked article on writers jailed by repressive regimes. Its Indonesia list describes Sudjinah as a writer who contributed short stories to Harian Rakjat and worked on the editorial staff of Api Kartini, journal of Gerwani; arrested
Constitution (Amnesty press conference on Indonesian prisoners)
Nederlands Dagblad, 6 October 1976, p. 5: partly missing report on an Amnesty International press conference in the Netherlands about Indonesian political prisoners. It states that the women in the women's camps are for the most part members of the militant Gerwani, discusses church relief for prisoners' families, and
Remaining 29,000 follow: Indonesia releases 2,650 communists after 11 years
Limburgsch Dagblad, 2 December 1976, p. 1: Jakarta announces release of 2,650 communist prisoners held since 1965 without trial, with a promise to free the remaining 29,000 within three years. At a ceremony 150 swore loyalty to Suharto; among them were students, former civil servants and members of the banned women's m
Jakarta releases 2,650 political prisoners
Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, 2 December 1976: Reuter report that Indonesia released 2,650 prisoners held since 1965 without trial. At a ceremony 150 swore loyalty to Suharto, among them students, former civil servants and members of the banned leftist women's movement Gerwani; 29,000 remain, with a promise to free them
Indonesia releases prisoners
Nederlands Dagblad, 3 December 1976, p. 3: Jakarta announces release of 2,650 communist prisoners held since 1965 without trial, repeats the promise to free the remaining 29,000 within three years. At a ceremony 150 swore loyalty to Suharto; they included students, ex-civil servants and members of the banned women's mo
Virus (Montreal), 1979: Amnesty appeal for four Indonesian women prisoners (Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati, Suhart
Issue of the Montreal listings magazine Virus (vol. 2 no. 7, 1979) with a short Amnesty International appeal. It says four women, Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (OCR garbles the last name), members of a 'slightly leftist women's organisation' (not named, but Gerwani is meant), were arrested in
Virus (Montreal), 1979: Amnesty appeal for four Indonesian women prisoners (Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati, Suhart
Issue of the Montreal listings magazine Virus (vol. 2 no. 7, 1979) with a short Amnesty International appeal. It says four women, Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (OCR garbles the last name), members of a 'slightly leftist women's organisation' (not named, but Gerwani is meant), were arrested in
Prisoners of Conscience (The Observer, 12 August 1979)
The Observer, 12 Aug 1979, p.8, 'Prisoners of Conscience': Amnesty International notes up to 20,000 untried political prisoners remain in Indonesia and takes up four women active in Gerwani, arrested 1966 and tried nine years later: Sulami (20 years), Sudjinah (18), Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (15 each). It
Virus (Montreal), 1979: Amnesty appeal for four Indonesian women prisoners (Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati, Suhart
Issue of the Montreal listings magazine Virus (vol. 2 no. 8, October 1979) with a short Amnesty International appeal. It says four women, Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (OCR garbles the last name), members of a 'slightly leftist women's organisation' (not named, but Gerwani is meant), were arr
Virus (Montreal), 1979: Amnesty appeal for four Indonesian women prisoners (Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati, Suhart
Issue of the Montreal listings magazine Virus (vol. 2 no. 8, October 1979) with a short Amnesty International appeal. It says four women, Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (OCR garbles the last name), members of a 'slightly leftist women's organisation' (not named, but Gerwani is meant), were arr
Imprisonment: Wertheim on continued prosecution of Gerwani women
Closing section of a Wertheim piece in De Volkskrant (28 Apr 1981). It states that women active in Gerwani are still prosecuted: in 1979 two were given extremely heavy sentences without credit for detention since 1965, and with six other Gerwani women were moved to Tangerang. The rest concerns ex-CIA officer McGehee an
Gjengangeren, 9 Mar 1984: Amnesty women's day appeal naming Sudjinah
Gjengangeren (Horten, Norway), 9 Mar 1984: a column on women prisoners of conscience for International Women's Day, from the Horten/Borre Amnesty group. It cites Sudjinah, 'formerly active in what was then Indonesia's largest women's movement' (presumably Gerwani; not named), held eight years before a 1975 trial and a
Gjengangeren, 9 Mar 1984: Amnesty women's day appeal naming Sudjinah
Gjengangeren (Horten, Norway), 9 Mar 1984: a column on women prisoners of conscience for International Women's Day, from the Horten/Borre Amnesty group. It cites Sudjinah, 'formerly active in what was then Indonesia's largest women's movement' (presumably Gerwani; not named), held eight years before a 1975 trial and a
Lesbian women in the Third World: persecuted and recognised
Het Vrije Volk interview feature (9 Jul 1990, p.10) by Canis Zijlmans on anthropologist Saskia Wieringa's research on lesbian women in the Third World. One passage mentions her research in Indonesia on the 'three-million-member' communist women's organisation Gerwani, wiped out after Suharto's takeover, and lesbian lif
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
Cezanne (Trouw corrections column)
Trouw correction column (4 Oct 1995): a wrong phone number for the Cézanne exhibition, and a note that the 30 September article on the 1965 coup drew on Saskia Wieringa's research, due for her Amsterdam doctorate on 6 October, under-acknowledged. Gives her thesis title: The Politicization of Gender Relations in Indones
Suharto's fear of the voice of Gerwani (on Saskia Wieringa's research)
De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c
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
'Indonesia must work on national reconciliation'
Algemeen Dagblad (2000-05-27, Nina Eberlijn, Jakarta): Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad discusses the near-impossibility of prosecuting Suharto-era abuses and a South African-style truth commission; Kontras cites ~16,000 missing. Sulami, jailed 20 years as a Gerwani activist, says reconciliation needs victims' test