ANP news report, 17 February 1967 (Indonesia: four PKI leaders arrested)
ANP radio bulletin, 17 Feb 1967: four prominent banned-PKI members arrested in Jakarta, three of them Central Committee members (Rachmat, 'Mrs Soedjimah' [Sudjinah] and Mrs Soelami [Sulami]). The last two were also leading figures in Gerwani. Documents the arrest of two top Gerwani leaders.
Austrian minister at Israeli reception (with note on Sulami trial)
Amigoe di Curaçao news roundup, 8 Oct 1973. The only relevant item is a brief note that the trial of Mrs Sulami, 50, secretary-general of the PKI women's section (Gerwani), is about to begin in Jakarta for alleged part in the 1965 coup. The rest concerns Austrian and Israeli diplomacy.
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. 7, October 1974. Covers the Indonesian Defence Department's attack on TAPOL, the Hariman Siregar trial, admissions on tapol forced labour, 'C' category releases and re-arrests, non-involvement certificates, civil-service purges (teachers and PLN staff dismissed) and plans for October Week in Britain.
TAPOL Bulletin no. 8, January 1975. Leads on Papuan mass killings and the Indonesian ban on the word 'tapol'; also Buru unrest and health conditions, the British Foreign Office meeting with religious leaders, non-involvement certificates, 'C' category releases, Hariman Siregar's six-year sentence and Carmel Budiardjo's
New victims of Suharto: life sentence demanded for secretary of Indonesian women's movement
De Waarheid, 23 Apr 1975, p. 4: report that life imprisonment was demanded in Jakarta against Sulami, secretary of Gerwani, and twenty years for three other women, on charges of undermining authority, raising money for families of imprisoned or killed patriots, and involvement in preparing the PKI's 1965 'uprising'. Th
Women - life imprisonment (Joop Morrien on the trial of Gerwani and PKI women)
De Waarheid, 25 Apr 1975, article by Joop Morrien on nearly ten years of Suharto's dictatorship. It reports the military tribunal trial of Gerwani and PKI women Sulami, Sudjinah, Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono, who went underground after 1965 and were arrested in late 1966; life is demanded for Sulami and 20 ye
Release of Indonesian women demanded: Women's Action Day 1975 protest letter
De Waarheid, 2 Jun 1975, p. 1: report that the NVB's Women's Action Day '75 sent a protest letter to the Suharto regime (copy to minister Pronk) demanding release of four Gerwani women: life imprisonment demanded against Sulami, secretary of Gerwani, and 20 years each against Sri Ambar Rukmijati, Sudjinah and Suharti H
Women's movement magazine condemns Indonesian trial: NVB demands freedom for Gerwani women
De Waarheid, 21 Jun 1975, p. 5: report that the NVB monthly 'Vrouwen' urges protest against the heavy sentences passed in late April on four Gerwani members. It recalls the 1965 coup, bloodbath and camps, ten years of deteriorating living conditions and foreign aid through the IGGI (up to 880 million dollars a year). T
NVB demands freedom for Gerwani women (full newspaper page, 21 Jun 1975)
Full De Waarheid page, 21 Jun 1975 (p. 5), mostly unrelated (Mokum 700 festival, EEC steel output, farmers' protests). The relevant article reports the NVB's call to protest the Jakarta trial of four Gerwani women: life demanded for Sulami (about 50), 20 years for Suharti Harsono, Sri Ambar Rukmijati and Sudjinah, accu
Trial (four Gerwani women in Jakarta)
De Waarheid, 21 Jun 1975, p. 5: boxed text on the Jakarta trial of four Gerwani women: life demanded against Gerwani secretary Sulami (aged 50) for helping reorganise the PKI after 1965; with Suharti Harsono, Sri Ambar Rukmijati and Sudjinah accused of typing and passing on pamphlets, forging ID papers and aiding priso
Protests (NVB appeal for four Gerwani women)
De Waarheid, 21 Jun 1975, p. 5: boxed NVB appeal to protest the sentences on four Gerwani women, noting Sri Ambar and Sudjinah were officials of the banned SOBSI and that all four are internationally known for women's and union work. Calls for halting financial aid to the Suharto regime, restoring democratic rights and
Stop support for the Suharto regime
De Waarheid, 21 Jun 1975, p. 5: boxed text 'Stop support for the Suharto regime' from the NVB monthly 'Vrouwen': the IGGI group (US, Japan, West Germany, Netherlands) gives up to 880 million dollars yearly to the regime; its April meeting was postponed amid confusion over Indochina; Suharto fears liberation victories.
Brave stance before tribunal: 'No regret for activities': heavy sentences against Indonesian women
De Waarheid, 11 Jul 1975, p. 1: report that the Jakarta tribunal sentenced four women: Sulami, secretary of the banned Gerwani, to twenty years; Sudjinah, editor of the organisation's paper, 18 years; Sri Ambar, SOBSI board member, and Suharti, BTI board member, 15 years each. Headlined as courageous conduct before the
Brave stance before tribunal: heavy sentences against Indonesian women (reprint 12 Jul 1975)
De Waarheid, 12 Jul 1975, p. 1: reprint of the report that the Jakarta tribunal sentenced four women: Sulami, secretary of the banned Gerwani, to twenty years; Sudjinah, editor of the organisation's paper, 18 years; Sri Ambar (SOBSI board) and Suharti (BTI board) 15 years each. Headlined 'courageous conduct before the
Women, mothers (what Suharto's envoys kept silent about)
De Waarheid, 20 Sep 1975, p. 3: article asking what the Indonesian parliamentary delegation did not mention: Plantungan women's camp in Central Java (386 women), Bukit Duri and Semarang prisons, and named women prisoners: Umi Sardjono, chair of the underground Gerwani, vice-chairs Salawati Daud and Mudigdio, Maasje Siw
'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,
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
FCO 15/2701: Political Detainees in Indonesia (1980)
British FCO file FCO 15/2701 (1980), 'Political detainees in Indonesia': Amnesty International's April 1980 letter and memorandum to the UK government before the IGGI meeting, on release of B-category prisoners, restrictions on ex-detainees, missing persons and unfair A-category trials, plus TAPOL Bulletin extracts (No
TAPOL Bulletin no. 44 (London, March 1981): army takeover of the legal sector, Free-Aceh trials, Pramoedya's Buru novels harassed, East Timor, US human rights report. A short item (p.4) reports that eight women political prisoners long held in Bukit Duri were moved to Tangerang women's prison: Sulami (20 years), Sudjin
'Indonesia must work on national reconciliation'
Algemeen Dagblad (2000-05-27, Nina Eberlijn, Jakarta): Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad discusses the near-impossibility of prosecuting Suharto-era abuses and a South African-style truth commission; Kontras cites ~16,000 missing. Sulami, jailed 20 years as a Gerwani activist, says reconciliation needs victims' test
Women in the Current of the Times (Sulami, 1995/2001)
Sulami's essay 'Perempuan dalam Arus Zaman' (written Dec 1995, published Aug 2001) surveying women's condition before globalisation using Kompas reports on rapes, Julia Suryakusuma's 1981 article and a seminar paper on women workers. Does not mention Gerwani.
Gerry van Klinken's 2001 article mapping the post-Suharto contest over the national past: statist New Order history (film, Lubang Buaya rituals, book bans), versus societal streams including Sulami's 1999 truth-seeking organisation and Pramoedya. Historiographical context.
Saskia Wieringa's 2002 monograph, the foundational history of Gerwani: a semi-autonomous organisation with triple loyalty to feminism, nationalism and socialism, and the New Order's founding on manipulation of sexual symbols through the 1965 slander. Based on interviews with Umi Sardjono, Sulami, Sudjinah, Trimurti and
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 English, 4 October 2021: Women warriors (Gerwani infographic)
Tempo English infographic 'Women Warriors' (4 Oct 2021, text by Hussein Abri Dongoran) summarising Gerwani: founded 1954 from Gerwis (1950), disbanded 1965 after New Order accusations. It lists the central board (Umi Sardjono chair, Mudikdio, Suharti, S.K. Trimurti, Sulami Djojoprawiro, Sudjinah and others), the jasmin
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