Seventeen photographs of the sculptors' group Keluarga Arca installing miniature dioramas (Yani abduction, Lubang Buaya training, recovery of bodies) c. 1980-81, plus later life-size figures. Visual evidence of how the Paseban dioramas were made.
Bintang Timur, 6 May 1958, p. 1 (after APRI's recapture of West Sumatran towns). Reports the Gerwani DPP's protest to the US and Taiwan governments over their intervention supporting Permesta/PRRI, demanding they stop interference, respect Indonesia's sovereignty and Asia-Africa, and appealing to American women to pres
News-Mail (Bundaberg), 6 February 1963, p. 7, AAP-Reuter wire from Jakarta (duplicate OCR of GA-00265, with scrambled columns). SOBSI cabled protest to Singapore over mass arrests of leftists on 2-3 February; Partindo and Gerwani also protested. Also reports Brunei's Sultan warning against Indonesian volunteers and Gen
News-Mail (Bundaberg), 6 February 1963, p. 7, AAP-Reuter wire from Jakarta (clean OCR). The SOBSI federation, claiming three million members, cabled Singapore condemning its mass arrests of leftists as a move to quell opposition to Malaysia, and Partindo and Gerwani also protested. The Sultan of Brunei warned against a
FRUS 1964-68 vol. XXVI, doc. 149: CIA/OCI Intelligence Memorandum 'The Upheaval in Indonesia' (6 Oct 1965). Describes the 30 September Movement, Suharto's takeover and Sukarno's manoeuvres, and says GERWANI (the 'Communist women's front group') was reportedly involved. Quotes Suharto's 4 Oct statement that an area near
Twentsch Dagblad Tubantia (7 Oct 1965): Jakarta TV shows exhumation of the generals' mutilated bodies from the Lubang Buaya well; Suharto says they were found near the air-force base where Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani volunteers were trained, citing an arrested female volunteer from Cirebon. Also the generals' funeral and
South China Morning Post, 15 Oct 1965, p.12, 'Torture squads in Djakarta: how Indonesian generals died', by a special correspondent. A lurid account of the 1 October killings: it says 'frenzied members of the Gerwani women's organisation' chanted insults and danced naked while Pemuda Rakjat youths emasculated six gener
The Hindustan Times, 15 Oct 1965: report of a police witness's account at Lubang Buaya that Communist women danced naked in a circle while six generals and a lieutenant (mistaken for Nasution) were tortured to death, with torn-out fingernails and faces mutilated. Gerwani is not named, but this is an early instance of t
Renmin Ribao (20 Oct 1965, p. 3) reprints Suharto's RRI statements of 1, 3 and 4 October 1965: he takes interim army leadership, calls the September 30th Movement counter-revolutionary, and at Lubang Buaya on 4 October says the well lay near an Air Force volunteer training centre with Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani activist
Berita Harian, 9 December 1965, p. 4: UPI photographer Kurnipi visits Bukit Duri women's prison, Jakarta (about 110 detainees), among them Gerwani leaders and MPs Salawati Daud and Umi Sardjono, plus Emi binti Madali, 20, who 'confessed' to killing General Yani, and two small children jailed with their mothers. Women p
Angkatan Bersendjata, 14 Jan 1966. Feature from Soetiman's 17 Dec 1965 statement: Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat 'warmly welcomed' Yani's body and fought a half-hour battle on 2 October. Gerwani militarised but no mutilation or sexual element yet.
Gereformeerd Gezinsblad roundup (8 Feb 1966, p.3) of Indonesia-China tension (Subandrio, student protest at Chinese embassy) and Indonesian-Japanese trade talks. One paragraph reports that communist Suradijo, shot while escaping, had tortured General Parman with a bamboo spear 'in front of a group of screaming women an
Canberra Times, 15 Apr 1966, p. 10: concluding part of a 'Special Correspondent' account repeating the Lubang Buaya slander. Claims 100 Gerwani women at Halim took razor blades, tortured and mutilated the generals, citing 'Mrs Djamilah' via the Djakarta Mail (15 Nov), singing 'People's Blood'. Adds Nasution escape narr
Canberra Times, 15 Apr 1966, p. 10: concluding part of a 'Special Correspondent' account repeating the Lubang Buaya slander. Claims 100 Gerwani women at Halim took razor blades, tortured and mutilated the generals, citing 'Mrs Djamilah' via the Djakarta Mail (15 Nov), singing 'People's Blood'. Adds Nasution escape narr
De Tijd article "Gruwelen" (23 Apr 1966) recounting the 1 Oct 1965 killings of the generals, claiming a hundred Gerwani women at Halim took part in torturing them with knives and razor blades after "training" including sexual orgies and blood oaths, citing a 15-year-old "Miss Djamilah" and the Djakarta Mail of 5 Nov. A
De Tijd article "Gruwelen" (23 Apr 1966) recounting the 1 Oct 1965 killings of the generals, claiming a hundred Gerwani women at Halim took part in torturing them with knives and razor blades after "training" including sexual orgies and blood oaths, citing a 15-year-old "Miss Djamilah" and the Djakarta Mail of 5 Nov. D
Berita Yudha, 1 Oktober 1966. First-anniversary issue: Suharto on Pancasila's 'magic power', Nasution on the Cakrabirawa, photo of Yani's exhumed body, an interview with a widow; Gerwani item on p. 1.
Canberra Times, 13 Jan 1971, p. 7 (AAP-Reuter): at the trial of Sukatno, ex-chairman of the Communist youth organisation, Gerwani member Emmy Marjani, 24, now under arrest, testifies she gouged a general's eyes on 30 Sep 1965 and saw friends mutilate another, claiming she was paid one million rupiah. Repeats the Lubang
Canberra Times, 13 Jan 1971, p. 7 (AAP-Reuter): at the trial of Sukatno, ex-chairman of the Communist youth organisation, Gerwani member Emmy Marjani, 24, now under arrest, testifies she gouged a general's eyes on 30 Sep 1965 and saw friends mutilate another, claiming she was paid one million rupiah. Repeats the Lubang
Tempo review (31 Jan 2011) of 'Tjap Merah', a dance piece by Yosep Prihantoro Sadsuitubun (grandson of K.S. Tubun) at GoetheHaus, Jakarta, closing the exhibition 'Indonesia and the World 1959-1966'. It stages the stigma on Gerwani women (Lubang Buaya dancing and castration myth, 'ET' label, Genjer-genjer); he says most
Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation
Op-ed by Ita Fatia Nadia in Tempo (2 Oct 2021) tracing the army-controlled press campaign from 7 Oct 1965 that cast Gerwani as sexually sadistic, contradicted by the military doctors' autopsy (Roebiono Kertapati). It links the slander to the mass killings, Kowani's expulsion of Gerwani (29 Oct 1965), Lubang Buaya volun