Abrupt change in Indonesia's political situation: Suharto takes control, mass arrests, PKI offices burned
Xinhua survey in Renmin Ribao (20 Oct 1965, p. 1) of Indonesia's first three weeks after 30 September, from Chinese-side sources: Suharto takes control, mass arrests (3,000 by 17 October), PKI headquarters burned, Harian Rakjat closed, universities shut, anti-Chinese incidents. Gerwani appears in the NU demand to disso
US Embassy Djakarta Airgram A-300, 22 October 1965: The September 30 Affair - history and interpretation of the attempte
US Embassy Djakarta airgram A-300 (22 Oct 1965, Edward Masters), a 46-page analysis of the 30 September Movement, the PKI, Sukarno, Air Force and army prospects. Gerwani appears only twice: as members of PKI paramilitary TIK units trained at Halim, and as PKI women said to have taunted and humiliated the generals at Lu
Telegram 1168 to Secretary of State, 23 Oct 1965
US Embassy telegram 1168, 23 Oct 1965: anti-communist unions demand dissolution of the PKI and SOBSI from Labour Minister Sutomo, who hesitates; Army liaison approached. Labour-front context; no Gerwani content.
The Anti-Communist Campaign in Indonesia: A Chronology (USIA R-158-65), Nov 1965
USIA Research and Reference Service report R-158-65 (November 1965), a chronology of the anti-Communist campaign in Indonesia, 1-20 October 1965, built on Indonesian and foreign radio and press. Gerwani entries: Suharto's 4 Oct TV statement linking the generals' murders to Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani training grounds; NU
The Times of India, 8 Nov 1965, p.1 (Jakarta, 7 Nov): the PKI and affiliated mass organisations in Bali, including Gerwani (Women's Movement), Pemuda Rakjat, Lekra, BTI, student, teachers' (PGRI) and SOBSI unions, have been suspended; leaders must report daily and a curfew applies. Sukarno says he is considering bannin
The masses did not rise (The Hindustan Times, 8 December 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth (Singapore), 'PKI Debacle I: The Masses Did Not Rise': analysis of why the PKI collapsed after the 1 Oct coup: overrated membership, reliance on Sukarno and on army and air force penetration, no general strike, SOBSI dissolving. It reports Untung's alleged claim that m
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
Indonesia, a new Vietnam (Drammens Tidende og Buskeruds Blad, 13 December 1965)
Drammens Tidende og Buskeruds Blad (Norway), 13 Dec 1965, p. 4 (page image): Albert Henrik Mohn's Jakarta report 'Indonesia - a new Vietnam', surveying the PKI's history from 1920 and Aidit's leadership. It lists PKI mass organisations, including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat and the women's organisation 'Gerwani' with rou
Indonesia, a new Vietnam (Drammens Tidende og Buskeruds Blad, 13 December 1965), OCR text
Drammens Tidende og Buskeruds Blad (Norway), 13 Dec 1965, p. 4 (OCR text): Albert Henrik Mohn's Jakarta report 'Indonesia - a new Vietnam', surveying the PKI's history from 1920 and Aidit's leadership. It lists PKI mass organisations, including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat and the women's organisation 'Gerwani' with rough
Indonesia, a new Vietnam? (Haugesunds Avis, 17 December 1965)
Haugesunds Avis (Norway), 17 Dec 1965, p. 8 (page image): Albert Henrik Mohn's Jakarta article 'Indonesia, a new Vietnam?' on PKI history, Aidit's rise and party growth to 3 million. It names PKI mass organisations (SOBSI, peasant front, Pemuda Rakyat, and the women's organisation Gerwani with about 1.5 million members
Indonesia, a new Vietnam? (Haugesunds Avis, 17 December 1965), OCR text
Haugesunds Avis (Norway), 17 Dec 1965, p. 8 (OCR text): Albert Henrik Mohn's Jakarta article 'Indonesia, a new Vietnam?' on PKI history, Aidit's rise and party growth to 3 million. It names PKI mass organisations (SOBSI, peasant front, Pemuda Rakyat, and the women's organisation Gerwani with about 1.5 million members)
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, 9 October 1966 (Weekly Edition)
Angkatan Bersendjata, 9 Oktober 1966 (edisi Mingguan). Cultural-page polemic against Lekra calls it a 'myth' that 'without Gerwani the women's movement has no meaning'; issue dominated by ABRI's 21st anniversary and the Subandrio trial.
The Rise and Fall of the Djakarta-Peking Axis, 1949-1966 (Ju, 1967)
PhD dissertation (Mississippi State, 1967) by Woo Jung Ju on Sino-Indonesian relations, 1949-1966, from Bandung to the collapse of the Jakarta-Peking axis. It follows the PKI's resurgence under Aidit, Guided Democracy, the Malaysia Confrontation and the planned second Afro-Asian Conference, largely from Western press a
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
The Times of India, 6 Sep 1977, p.11 (Reuter, London, 4 Sep): Amnesty International lists 62 imprisoned or missing parliamentarians in 17 countries; Indonesia tops the list with 23, most held without trial since 1965 for links with the PKI, SOBSI, BTI or the women's organisation Gerwani. Named are Subandrio, Oei Tjoe T
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
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