Arrest of Suharti Suwarto, Gerwani Deputy Chairman, and Husband Subarto (FBIS, 29 Mar 1968)
HathiTrust FBIS Daily Report extract (29 Mar 1968). It reports the arrest on 22-23 March of Mrs Suharti Suwarto, called Gerwani deputy chairman and head of the PKI women's division, and her husband Subarto, alleged to have posed as a religious teacher among Muslims. It places them in 'Operation Kalong', with about 300
Sukarno's role: an exile at home (New York Times, 27 October 1968)
New York Times, 27 Oct 1968, p.5, Terence Smith from Jakarta: Sukarno lives under house arrest at Bogor and was interrogated in Sept-Oct 1968 about clandestine contacts with former associates, after Communists captured in the Blitar operations (2,000 killed or captured, including PKI chairman Oloan Hutapea) implicated
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
Tempo, 1972: The political prisoner problem
Tempo article (online archive, dated 1972) on the political prisoner (tapol) problem: Archbishop Leo Soekoto urges society to help, Amnesty and the Red Cross press Jakarta, Buru resettlement of about 5,000 Group B prisoners is presented as the best option, and officials still see ex-PKI as a threat. No Gerwani content.
ANP news report, 21 June 1972 (Women to Buru)
ANP radio bulletin, 21 June 1972: 700 Indonesian women and their children will join husbands detained on Buru, where 10,000 alleged communist men have been held for three years. Suharto allowed family reunification, limited to one child per woman; more groups to follow. Gerwani not named but relevant to the fate of pol
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
FCO 15/1941: Political Detainees in Indonesia (1974-75)
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office file FCO 15/1941 (1974-75), 'Political detainees in Indonesia': ministerial letters on the National Peace Council and TAPOL campaigns, Research Department notes on Carmel Budiardjo, UN human-rights briefing, ICRC/Buru material and TAPOL Bulletin extracts. Gerwani features in the
TAPOL Bulletin No. 3, Jan 1974: case notes on Mrs Siti Mudigdio, Member of Parliament
TAPOL Bulletin No. 3 (January 1974) of the British Campaign for the Release of Indonesian Political Prisoners, with campaign news, prison conditions and torture reports. Its 'Case Notes' profile Mrs Siti Mudigdio, a Communist MP and vice-chair of Gerwani, once also a WIDF vice-chair, whose husband was killed in 1948. O
TAPOL Bulletin no. 5, June 1974 (London campaign for Indonesian political prisoners). Covers mass transfers of tapols to Central Java workcamps (Nusakambangan, Cilacap), British and Australian policy, IGGI aid, press bans and the January 1974 Malari aftermath. A short item, 'Ex-Gerwani Members Also in Trouble' (p.5), r
TAPOL Bulletin no. 6, August 1974. Covers the Hariman Siregar (Malari) trial, tapol forced labour on the Cilacap oil pipeline and Nusakambangan cement works, prison conditions, Australian and British military links and trials of 1965 detainees. It reports on Plantungan women's camp (food, commander Major Prayoga, death
The line of the Communist Party of Indonesia explained: interview with Setiati Surasto (Indonesian Tribune, Tirana, 1974
JPRS translation of an Indonesian Tribune (Tirana) 1974 report of Radio Tirana interview with Setiati Surasto, leader of the PKI delegation to Albania's 30th liberation anniversary. She describes Indonesia as a US neo-colony under Suharto's 'fascist' regime, cites 28 million unemployed and about 100,000 political priso
Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
Thousands of Indonesian women still languish in Suharto's prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
Suharto's answer (Lekra artists persecuted)
De Waarheid, 6 Nov 1976, p. 2: fragment on Suharto's destruction of the Lekra cultural movement in 1965 (book burnings, banned art), with a long list of murdered or imprisoned artists, including Pramoedya, Henk Ngantung, Bujung Saleh and writer Sugiarti Siswadi, noted as sentenced to 12 years (OCR garbled). Also an unr
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
TAPOL Bulletin no. 21, April 1977 (London). Covers the ICRC mission to seven Indonesian detention sites, Carter and human rights, East Timor testimony, Kopkamtib detention legality, official denials and the May elections. It prints a smuggled letter from a Salemba tapol to the Red Cross describing starvation, beri-beri
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
TAPOL Bulletin No. 27, April 1978, with Special Supplement on the Press
TAPOL Bulletin no. 27 (London, April 1978) with a Special Supplement on press freedom. Covers student repression, prisoner-release figures, trials and a Buru letter. The supplement notes that in 1965–66 the press published sensational reports of sexual orgies by leftwing organisations, and its list of jailed journalist
TAPOL Bulletin no. 28 (London, June 1978): arms sales and Mondale's visit, 1978 student crackdown (Yogyakarta), W.S. Rendra's arrest, conditions of the 1977 releases, psychotests of detainees, the Latief trial. A letter from an East Java ex-prisoner describes the 'bon' killings of 1966–69 and a Malang women's prison ho
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
'IGGI aid is howling with Suharto's hangmen' (picket Amstel Hotel)
De Waarheid, 4 Apr 1979, p. 1: report on a picket line at Amsterdam's Amstel Hotel against the IGGI conference where donors and Suharto regime ministers set aid for the year; organisations including CPN, PPR, PvdA Amsterdam, Komitee Indonesie, ANJV and NVB carried boards demanding 'Sulami, Suharti, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar,
TAPOL Bulletin no. 34 (London, June 1979, 20 pp.): exposes inconsistencies in KOPKAMTIB release figures, resettlement camps in Kalimantan and Buru, the student trials, release oath and ex-tapol discrimination, the Nijmegen psycho-test cover-up, TAPOL's research on 366 1965 trials, IGGI aid. Gerwani is not named; one it
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