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
The forgotten massacre: 'More killed than in Vietnam so far'
Tribune (Sydney), 21 Jan 1970, p. 8: extract from Hong Kong's Eastern Horizon of letters by an Indonesian writing as 'Barbro Karabuda' on the 1965-66 massacre and prisoners (official 86,000 detainees; torture; Army extortion). The writer finds Tanti Aidit in Bukit Duri women's prison in Jakarta with Aidit's mother-in-l
The forgotten massacre: 'More killed than in Vietnam so far'
Tribune (Sydney), 21 Jan 1970, p. 8: extract from Hong Kong's Eastern Horizon of letters by an Indonesian writing as 'Barbro Karabuda' on the 1965-66 massacre and prisoners (official 86,000 detainees; torture; Army extortion). The writer finds Tanti Aidit in Bukit Duri women's prison in Jakarta with Aidit's mother-in-l
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
Dutch Diary, Thursday 13 Sept. (Willem Oltmans)
Willem Oltmans's 'Hollands Dagboek' in NRC Handelsblad (22 Sep 1973), entries 13-20 Sept. Covers his New Guinea/Luns campaign, Hatta, Pertamina corruption, Chile 1973 compared to Indonesia 1965 mass murder, and Nasution's letters about Aidit shared by Dewi Sukarno. Lists imprisoned Indonesian writers and journalists. N
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
Women round the World: Indonesian Women (Kinesis, June 1977)
Kinesis (Vancouver feminist paper), June 1977, p.10, 'Women round the World': a section on Indonesian women. It says Gerwani, the largest women's organisation (over one million members), was banned for alleged complicity in the 1965 coup and blamed for atrocities; many members suffered torture and sexual abuse in inter
Pravda, 30 Oct 1990: 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' (V. Shurygin)
Pravda, 30 October 1990 (No. 303), p. 5: V. Shurygin's retrospective 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' on the 1965 coup, Suharto's rise and the destruction of the PKI by a Pravda correspondent who was in Indonesia. Gerwani appears once, listed as the PKI's women's organisation alongside SOBSI, BTI, Pemu
Pravda, 1990: Shurygin, 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' (excerpt)
Pravda (Nov/Dec 1990, No. 303) archive.org OCR excerpt of V. Shurygin's retrospective 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago'. Lists Gerwani among PKI-affiliated mass organisations, cites up to 500,000 killed, notes slander turned opinion against communists, and says ~50,000 of 1.4 million ex-prisoners may vo
Something great was misjudged there
Het Parool feature by John Jansen van Galen (6 May 1995) ahead of the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence, on a Sunday gathering of four Indonesians and two Dutch scholars. The excerpt shows Francisca Fanggidaej recalling her childhood as 'equalised' with Europeans, estranged from her own culture and thinking i
Loyal (on the origins of Indonesian nationalism)
Het Parool (6 May 1995) continuation of the feature on the Indonesian road to independence. Francisca Fanggidaej recalls first hearing the word 'Indonesia' from a cousin; historians Harry Poeze and Pieter Droogleever and veterans Gondo Pratomo and Aky Djoehana discuss early nationalism, Perhimpunan Indonesia, ethical p
The Indos' wrong gamble
Algemeen Dagblad feature by André Beijen (1995-07-08), first in a series before the Dutch royal visit: Indisch Dutch who stayed in Indonesia, now poor in Medan, and their grievances over Dutch benefits. Recalls the 1958 Sumatra rebellion and 'thousands murdered' in Medan after 1965 (Smit). No Gerwani content.
Folio: Channelling a national narcissism (Blokker column on Indies books)
Jan Blokker column in De Volkskrant (12 Aug 1995) reviewing Dutch books on the Indies and the colonial past. Mrs. S.K. Trimurti appears only as an interviewee quoted in H.C. Beynon's "Verboden voor honden en inlanders", on living with Inggit after Sukarno's 1933 arrest. Gerwani is not mentioned.
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
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
Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (Stroud, 2015)
Martha Stroud's 2015 UC Berkeley/UCSF medical-anthropology dissertation, based on fieldwork in Yogyakarta (2010-12), examines how the 1965-66 killings shape daily life through propaganda, surveillance, stigma, silence and justice. Gerwani appears mainly as the object of New Order propaganda: the Lubang Buaya mutilation
Bhinneka, October 2015: Half a Century of the 1965 Genocide (Indonesian edition, women ex-prisoners' testimonies)
Bhinneka, October 2015 (Surabaya; ed. Soe Tjen Marching), a 1965 anniversary issue. Women ex-prisoners testify: Hartiti, a Gerwani member, was asked whether she joined the 'naked dance' and castrated the generals; Maria Goretti Sumilah was beaten and burned to confess she was Gerwani; Theresia Kadmiyanti ran a TK Melat
Bhinneka, October 2015: Half a Century of the 1965 Genocide (Indonesian edition, women ex-prisoners' testimonies)
Bhinneka, October 2015 (Surabaya; ed. Soe Tjen Marching), a 1965 anniversary issue. Women ex-prisoners testify: Hartiti, a Gerwani member, was asked whether she joined the 'naked dance' and castrated the generals; Maria Goretti Sumilah was beaten and burned to confess she was Gerwani; Theresia Kadmiyanti ran a TK Melat
Wieringa and Katjasungkana's 2019 Routledge monograph, from the IPT 1965 prosecution report, arguing the 'real coup' was the ousting of Sukarno through about a million killings enabled by propaganda about Gerwani's alleged sexual perversion; chapter 6 treats two sexual moral panics. Key analysis.
Transformation of Gerwani: gender struggle to post-1965 stigmatisation (Aisyah, 2025)
Rania Dhiyaulhaq Aisyah, 'Transformasi Gerwani' (Jurnal Sejarah Indonesia 8:2, 2025), a literature-based article on Gerwani's pre-1965 gender activism (education, health, anti-polygamy, 1955 elections, PKI ties, congresses) and its post-1965 stigmatisation. It repeats Wieringa's finding that the Lubang Buaya sexual-vio
Counter-Monuments: Art and Memory in Post-1965 Indonesia (Bontrager, 2026)
MA thesis (University of Georgia, 2026) by Alyx L. Bontrager on how Indonesian artists Rangga Purbaya, Dadang Christanto and Leyla Stevens use testimony, embodiment and place as memory activism against the silencing of the 1965-66 genocide, theorised as 'counter-monuments'. Gerwani appears only in passing: ch. 2 (p. 7)