CIA 'Indonesian Situation' report no. 61, 14 November 1965: continuing anti-communist action and mass killings, Aidit's presumed whereabouts, and 1,000 women demonstrating in Jakarta for permanent dissolution of the PKI women's auxiliary. Records an early anti-Gerwani mobilisation.
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180322 (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams quoting Antara on the post-coup purge, Sukarno versus the generals, Medan and Central Java. Gerwani items: tel. 2418 (2 Nov, p. 52) reports a Kowani/women's congress move to expel Gerwani members; tel. 2421 (p. 57) quotes Suharto naming 'Pemud
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180323 (c. 4-16 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams, Antara extracts and Foreign Office correspondence on the PKI's destruction, Subandrio, Nasution and Sukarno. Gerwani items: tel. 2480 (p. 39) reports a 8 Nov Jakarta rally of women's organisations demanding dissolution of the PKI and Gerwani;
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180325 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [16]': letters and telegrams from Djakarta, NATO Paris, Washington and The Hague, late November 1965 to January 1966. It follows the regional bans of the PKI, Sukarno's Nasakom speeches, Aidit's fate and translated interrogations of Untung and
De Nieuwe Limburger, 11 Oct 1965 (ANP/UPI/AFP): despite Sukarno's call for moderation, the army starts a nationwide drive against the PKI. On Saturday a Muslim crowd plundered the houses of Aidit and Njoto and the Gerwani building; about 2,000 arrests near Jakarta; 44 parties demand a PKI ban. Early report of attacks o
South China Sunday Post-Herald, 7 Nov 1965, p.30 (Reuter, Djakarta, 6 Nov): the Armed Forces bulletin says nine 'suicide squad' members of Gerwani, the Communist Women's Organisation, were killed by troops after standing in the path of army tanks in Solo, jeering and turning their backs when asked to leave. The item al
The Hindustan Times, 7 Nov 1965 (Reuter, Bogor, 6 Nov): Sukarno promises action against the PKI while the army hunts its members; Subandrio reports Sukarno scolding Njoto for the party's 'childish disease'. The armed forces bulletin says nine Gerwani 'suicide members' were killed by paratroopers when they blocked the r
Page of Hungarian county daily Nograd, 7 Nov 1965, with an MTI Djakarta dispatch: the army press office says paratroopers 'were forced to take the lives' of Gerwani women who blocked a military column in Solo (Surakarta), Central Java; the communique does not state numbers. Also Pravda's Jakarta report on the banning o
Somogyi Neplap (Hungary), 7 Nov 1965, p. 2: MTI/AFP dispatch from Bogor on Sukarno's cabinet meeting, where he condemned anti-communist revenge and upheld NASAKOM. States an army press communiqué that soldiers fired on marching Gerwani women in Solo, Central Java, killing nine. Also notes de facto bans on the PKI and t
Berita Harian, 7 November 1965, p. 1: reports Aidit surrounded in Central Java (Col. Jasir) and, from army broadcasts, that nine 'suicide' members of Gerwani blocked tanks in Solo, jeered at paratroopers and were killed when they would not move. The text does not say how; the account is army-sourced and unverified. Als
Hamilton Spectator, 19 Nov 1965, p.6: Arthur Dommen (Los Angeles Times) on the 'Indonesian mystery' of the 30 September movement in central Java: Pemuda Rakjat raids on police posts at Boyolali and Klaten (22 Oct), army claims about 1,000 raiders killed, arms from China and guerrilla plans. The wartime-quality OCR name
US Embassy Joint Weeka no. 46 (airgram A-373), 7 Dec 1965: Aidit's capture and death, the fate of Politburo members, and a figure of 34,000 PKI prisoners in Java. Context on leadership elimination and detention scale.
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
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
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
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Journal article by Reuven Kahane (Contributions to Asian Studies, vol. 5, 1974) giving a structural-sociological explanation of the 1965 coup and army dominance in Indonesia: religious-class polarisation, failing Sukarno-era control mechanisms, and the army's rise. Gerwani appears only in a footnote listing PKI-affilia
De Waarheid piece (2 Sep 1989, p.16) criticising Suharto's silence on the 1965-66 massacres, quoting Stanley Karnow and C.L. Sulzberger on the killings and estimates of 300,000 to one million dead. It notes mass arrests without trial of hundreds of thousands, including members of SOBSI, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat, and t
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
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