Pravda, 18 Dec 1961: Fourth Gerwani Congress
Pravda no. 353, 18 December 1961 (full issue). Page 3 has a dispatch by correspondent O. Skalkin from Jakarta on the Fourth Gerwani Congress: 400 delegates from Java, Moluccas, Sumatra, Bali, Kalimantan; Sukarno's speech condemning anti-communism, backing NASAKOM and the West Irian claim, and praising Soviet support. N
Pravda, 18 Dec 1961: Fourth Gerwani Congress (excerpt)
Pravda no. 353, 18 December 1961 (excerpt of the page). Page 3 has a dispatch by correspondent O. Skalkin from Jakarta on the Fourth Gerwani Congress: 400 delegates from Java, Moluccas, Sumatra, Bali, Kalimantan; Sukarno's speech condemning anti-communism, backing NASAKOM and the West Irian claim, and praising Soviet s
Neues Deutschland, 4 Feb 1965, p. 2: Relations with Indonesia deepened
Neues Deutschland, 4 February 1965, p. 2: report on the Volkskammer session at which President Johannes Dieckmann reported on the delegation's 30 Nov–14 Dec 1964 trip to Indonesia. Quoting his report: on the penultimate day the delegation held talks 'with the leadership of Gerwani, the women's organisation of the Commu
Secret meeting
Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, 26 October 1965, p. 5: citing Karya Bakti, reports a secret PKI meeting on 19 October led by M.H. Lukman, attended by economist J. Piry and 'Aidit's mother-in-law, Mrs Moedigdio' [Mudigdio], amid attempts to set up revolutionary councils in Cirebon and Bali. The text is partly garbled.
LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communist Parties and Internal Politics, Nov 1965-May 1966
LBJ Library National Security File, Indonesia country file (vol. VI): US Embassy Jakarta cables and withdrawal sheets, mainly December 1965 to May 1966, on the army's moves against the PKI, Sukarno's speeches, student demonstrations and Suharto's rise. Gerwani appears twice. Embtel 2077 (17 Jan 1966) reports Bogor wall
Dunántúli Napló, 9 Nov 1965: Indonesian roundup, demands to ban PKI and Gerwani permanently
Dunántúli Napló, 9 Nov 1965, news roundup on Indonesia after 30 September: PKI ban spreads to Bali, Sukarno keeps Nasakom but hints at measures, press closures, 102 deputies blacklisted. Notably, right-wing forces staged a women's demonstration in Jakarta marching to Suharto's house and the National Front, demanding a
Somogyi Néplap, 9 Nov 1965: 'New anti-left measures'; demands to ban PKI and Gerwani
Somogyi Neplap (Hungary), 9 Nov 1965, p. 2: MTI report 'New anti-left measures' from Jakarta. A right-wing women's demonstration marched to Suharto's house and the National Front, demanding a final ban of the PKI and Gerwani. Also covers searches in Jakarta's old town, a blacklist of 102 deputies, the PKI ban extended
Tolna Megyei Népújság, 9 Nov 1965: hunt for communists in Indonesia, demands to ban PKI and Gerwani
Hungarian provincial daily Tolna Megyei Népújság, 9 Nov 1965, reporting from Western agencies on the right-wing hunt for communists in Indonesia: PKI ban extended to Bali, Sukarno's NASAKOM speech, Subandrio, press closures, Jakarta old town search. A right-wing women's demonstration marched to Suharto's house and dema
US Embassy Djakarta, Joint Sitrep No. 68, Telegram 1842 (22 December 1965)
US Embassy Djakarta telegram 1842, Joint Sitrep No. 68 (22 Dec 1965, Secret, sanitized, OCR rough). Reports Sukarno's speeches defending the PKI, including a Mother's Day gathering where he defended the PKI's women's affiliate (Gerwani), Nasution's 'basic guide' for crushing the PKI, the PNI purge, anti-Chinese violenc
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
Angkatan Bersendjata, 5 February 1966
Angkatan Bersendjata, 5 Feb 1966. Kodam Udayana round-up: 24 PKI/BTI arrests at Kupang, six 'Gerwani' escorted from Klungkung to Denpasar, and other detainees; Suharto on securing the revolution.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 15 February 1966
Angkatan Bersendjata, 15 Feb 1966, during Njono's Mahmillub trial. Security round-up 'Lagi-lagi Gerwani' reports arrests in Klungkung and Denpasar 'among them one Gerwani'; Aidit and the 'Revolutionary Council' testimony.
Thai Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee communique condemns Indonesian military killings and arrests
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao (19 Apr 1966, p. 4) of a 13 April communiqué by the Thai Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Committee condemning Indonesia's military and 'reactionaries': 78,500 killed and 106,000 arrested per the Fact-Finding Commission in Bali, Java and North Sumatra; bans on Pemuda Rakyat, CGMI, Gerwani, B
Peking Review no. 18, 29 April 1966: 'white terror' in Indonesia, women and children killed
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
Angkatan Bersendjata, 2 May 1966
Angkatan Bersendjata, 2 Mei 1966. Final instalment of a series on ex-Bali governor Sutedja lists PKI 'military training centres' in Bali, among them a Gerwani centre led by Nyonya Gede Puger, with trainers 'presumably graduates of Lubang Buaya'.
The Politico-Military Role of the Indonesian Armed Forces, October 1965-1968 (Fox, 1968)
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
Abadi, 8 June 1973, p. 2: Ex-Gerwani/PKI Figure Enters RRI Mataram
Harian Abadi, 8 June 1973, p. 2: follow-up claiming an RRI Mataram employee 'M' is the former Gerwani Denpasar chair, found by a screening team yet still employed; also an editorial on marriage law.
After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 January 1978), clean OCR
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 19 January 1978, p. 5, clean OCR of George Oliver's feature on the release of 10,000 political prisoners held since the 1965 coup (same article as GA-00267). It covers the official and alternative accounts of 30 September, killings of perhaps half a million, half to three-quarters of a mi
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
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
Tempo, 1 October 2012: The question of victim statistics
Tempo explainer (1 Oct 2012) on victim statistics for 1965-66 (estimates 200,000 to 3 million; most likely about half a million), weighing the Oei Tjoe Tat commission's 78,000, Kopkamtib's 1 million, Sarwo Edhie's 3 million and census evidence. It notes army propaganda about torture of the generals at Lubang Buaya was
The Cold War in the City of Heroes: US-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya (Setiyawan, 2014)
PhD dissertation in History (UCLA, 2014) by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan on U.S. anti-communist operations and the 1965-66 purge in Surabaya. Gerwani appears in context: as the PKI's women's affiliate (ch. 1), through the Surabaya women's coalition GOWS in the 27 September 1965 Grahadi demonstration (ch. 4), and in the Army
Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia (Roosa, 2020)
John Roosa's 2020 book, from nearly 400 interviews, arguing the typical 1965-66 killing was army execution of detainees (hence mass disappearance); dissects army propaganda including how Gen. Sugandhi sexualised Lubang Buaya from 9 Oct 1965. Key scholarship.
Forty Years of Silence: The Insanity of Society (Marching, 2020)
Film review by Soe Tjen Marching (Archipel 99, 2020, pp. 35-40) of Robert Lemelson's documentary '40 Years of Silence' (2009), following four families in Bali and Central Java affected by 1965-66, with attention to trauma, stigma ('child of communists') and the New Order propaganda film. Gerwani and the sexual slander
The Treachery on YouTube: Politics of Memory on New Media in Indonesia (Parahita and Yulianto, 2020)
Journal article by Gilang Desti Parahita and Vissia Ita Yulianto (Archipel 99, 2020, pp. 47-73) on how YouTube reproduces the New Order's 'Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI' as monumental memory while alternative 1965 films circulate far less. Gerwani appears on p. 63: filmmaker Lexy Rambadetta, after meeting former Gerwani membe
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Black propaganda against Gerwani (Ita Fatia Nadia)
Op-ed by Ita Fatia Nadia in Tempo (2 Oct 2021) tracing the army-controlled press campaign from 7 Oct 1965 that cast Gerwani as sexually sadistic, contradicted by the military doctors' autopsy (Roebiono Kertapati). It links the slander to the mass killings, Kowani's expulsion of Gerwani (29 Oct 1965), Lubang Buaya volun