Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs, 1967-68, p. 271: the Yap Thiam Hien affair and Trees Sunito
Page 271 of the Sydney-published Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs (vols 1-2, 1967-68), on the arrest and release of lawyer Yap Thiam Hien. It reports Djohan Arifin's claim that the Mahmillub trials had been infiltrated by the 'FKI', referring to Trees Sunito (Njono's defence counsel) and Yap, which Mahmillub ch
The Year That Never Ended: Understanding the Experiences of 1965 Victims (Roosa, Ratih and Farid, eds., 2004)
2004 Elsam/ISSI/TRuK volume distilling an oral history project of 260 victims, with essays including on women political prisoners (Josepha Sukartiningsih), rape in Central Java, survival strategies and Blitar Selatan. Introduction defends oral history against the Lubang Buaya myth.
Challenges of Political Rehabilitation: the case of Gerwani (McGregor and Hearman, 2007)
McGregor and Hearman's 2007 article reading Sulami's and Sudjinah's memoirs as political rehabilitation: both arrested 1967, tried 1975 for subversion; they distance Gerwani from the PKI and answer the sexual slander. Second copy of the paper (South East Asia Research).
Child-raising, Childbirth and Abortion In Extremis: women's stories 1965-1966 (Pohlman, 2013)
Pohlman's 2013 article, from about 150 interviews, on women's stories of pregnancy, childbirth, raising, losing and aborting children during 1965-66 and detention, including cooperative childcare and a former Gerwani leader (Ibu Astuti). Gendered history of survival.
Truth Will Out: Indonesian Accounts of the 1965 Mass Violence (Wardaya, ed., 2013)
Wardaya's 2013 English edition of oral histories gathered 2008-11 by Sanata Dharma University's PUSdEP: witnesses from military, Muhammadiyah, Kejawen and Catholic backgrounds and survivors including women detained as alleged Gerwani; foreword summarises the Gerwani mutilation narrative and autopsy. Oral history source
Forbidden Memories: Women's Experiences of 1965 in Eastern Indonesia (Kolimon et al., 2015)
English translation (Monash, 2015) of Memori-memori terlarang, research by women pastors and theologians of the JPIT network on women survivors, witnesses and perpetrators across East Nusa Tenggara (Sabu, Kupang, Timor, Alor, Sumba). Regional women's testimony on 1965.
Women, Sexual Violence and the Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966 (Pohlman, 2015)
Annie Pohlman's 2015 monograph, the first book-length study of gendered violence in 1965-66, based on about 150 women survivors: patterns of arrest, torture, rape, sexualised mutilation, strip searches for the 'Gerwani mark', sexual slavery and 'wife-taking'. Key scholarly source.
Pohlman (2017), lead investigator on sexual crimes for the IPT 1965, argues rape and sexualised torture in 1965-70 detention were crimes against humanity, summarising fifty-eight case files (72% female victims, 85% naming soldiers or military police). Legal framing of sexual torture.
The Indonesian Genocide of 1965: Causes, Dynamics and Legacies (McGregor, Melvin, Pohlman, eds., 2018)
Edited volume (Palgrave 2018; McGregor, Melvin, Pohlman) arguing the 1965 violence was genocidal, covering causes (Aceh army documents, Bali, Pohlman on women's testimonies of sexual violence in West Sumatra) and legacies. Key scholarship on 1965 violence.
Routledge volume (2019, ed. Wieringa, Melvin, Pohlman) gathering research behind the IPT 1965: coup, torture, Buru enslavement, sexual slavery and forced marriage, exile, mass graves, Western complicity and youth projects. Foreword by judge Zak Yacoob.
Gerwani as a political school of Islam in the Sukarno era (Rahmanudin, 2022)
Deden Rahmanudin, 'Gerwani Mazhab Politik Islam Era Soekarno' (Jurnal Kewarganegaraan 6:2, 2022), a literature-based article presenting Gerwani as a feminist movement and discussing it from an Islamic viewpoint (Sukarno's Sarinah, Hamka). Drawing on Wieringa and Lestariningsih, it recounts Gerwani's 1950 founding, MPs
Pohlman's chapter on the interrogation and torture centres ('devil's houses') in the army's 1965-70 detention system, opening with Sudjinah's account of capture with Sulami in Feb 1967 and torture at Gunung Sahari. Evidence from a handful of survivor testimonies.
Patterns of New Order Torture: the IndoTorM dataset (Pohlman et al., 2024)
Pohlman and colleagues' 2024 article presenting the IndoTorM dataset of 4,072 torture victims (1965 onward), with heat maps showing beatings and forced stripping constant over time and rape dominant for women and children. Quantitative context on New Order torture.
The End of Silence: Accounts of the 1965 Genocide in Indonesia (Soe Tjen Marching, 2025 ed.)
Soe Tjen Marching's collection (Amsterdam UP 2017; Routledge 2025) of twenty survivor and descendant testimonies organised by generation, including 'Steel Women', and introducing the 'mutation of fear'. Summarises the 1965 slander of Gerwani; key testimony source.
Katarzyna Głąb's open-access article (June 2026) on Plantungan, the women political prisoners' camp in a former Dutch leprosarium, using 2018 interviews with survivors aged 81-89 and Mia Bustam's memoir; argues it worked through forced labour, sexual violence and memory erasure. Recent scholarship on Plantungan.