Situation in the Indies: Mansergh orders surrender of arms
Nijmeegsch Dagblad, 10 November 1945, p. 1: wire report on the British ultimatum of Maj-Gen Mansergh to Surabaya's Indonesian leadership to surrender arms, and on conditions in Batavia, Bandung, Semarang and the Pontianak area. It says Indonesian women and children could leave Surabaya only by a specified route. No Ger
Short news Indonesia
Nieuwe Courant, 17 September 1948, p. ?: column of short Indonesia and foreign news (KNIL command changes, Pasundan premier travelling, execution of two TNI and BPRI 'terrorists' who used kampong women as cover in attacks near Salatiga, pilgrim ship, French strike, Huks). No Gerwani or women's movement content.
The coup in Madiun: 'purge action against reactionaries'
Nieuwe Courant, 22 September 1948: Antara reports on the Madiun events: Murba's correspondent describes the 12 September communist takeover, Musso's radio speech (claiming millions of women became widows through Japanese romusha), Suripno calling it a 'purge action', and Col. Djokosujono's claim of a clean-up of reacti
Censorship in Yogyakarta; huge smuggling affair
Nieuwe Provinciale Groninger Courant, 22 September 1948, p. 2: wire items from the Madiun crisis (censorship and bans in Yogyakarta, Amir Sjarifuddin leaving Madiun, executions of two TNI/BPRI raiders who used kampong women as shields), a court-martial for thefts at Tanjung Priok, and a South Sulawesi-Singapore smuggli
Explanation requested: death sentences in the Madiun affair
Nieuwe Courant, 26 September 1950: correspondent's report that the Madiun rebel leaders (Amir Sjarifuddin, Suripno and others) were shot on 20 December 1948 and buried in a mass grave near Solo, with no official detail given. MP Mrs Mudigdo champions the relatives, with Mrs Mangku and Mrs Oei Gee Hwat, to demand from p
Nieuwe Courant, 26 September 1950 (page): Madiun death sentences
Whole-page OCR of Nieuwe Courant, 26 September 1950. Relevant item: the report that MP Mrs Mudigdo, with Mrs Mangku and Mrs Oei Gee Hwat, seeks an official account of the 1948 executions of the Madiun rebel leaders. The rest covers an editorial against liquidating foreign capital, the Sarbupri minimum-wage motion, a co
Ensiklopedia Indonesia, part II: important contribution to knowledge of this country
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad review (1955-12-19, p. 2) of volume II (F-M) of the Ensiklopedia Indonesia. The reviewer praises it but objects to terminology on the Madiun affair and states it is wrong to list the Gerakan Revolusi Rakjat or the Gerwis as communist organisations, proposing the Ministry of Information's 'Kepar
Accounting of inventory by Dr Hatta already handed over
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1957-04-06, p. 2): after press reports that Hatta had not accounted for the Fonds Kemerdekaan Indonesia, Hatta's secretary and fund chair Sumanang explain the fund's gold and silver jewellery was handed to the Fonds Nasional and partly used for guerrilla financing in 1948-49. Sumanang says S.K
Responsibility for the Independence Fund: not Hatta but Sumanang
Java-Bode, 6 April 1957, p. 2: statements by Hatta's secretary and Mr Sumanang clarifying that responsibility for the Fonds Kemerdekaan/Fonds Nasional jewellery lies with Sumanang, not Hatta. Sumanang says part of the gold funded guerrilla activity around Yogyakarta and suggests Mrs Trimurti, wife of Sayuti Melik, can
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 April 1965: Aidit and Indonesian communism - on the springboard to power
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 April 1965, long analytical article 'Aidit and Indonesian Communism: on the springboard to power'. It reviews the Indonesian crisis, PKI history from 1920 through Madiun 1948, Aidit's rise and biography. Gerwani appears once, as a PKI front organisation with 1.5 million members, alongside SOBSI
The revolution passes Indonesia by: interview with Ernst Utrecht
Second half of a De Volkskrant interview (29 Aug 1970) with Prof. Ernst Utrecht on his book on Indonesia ahead of Suharto's Dutch visit. Utrecht says the Jakarta branches of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat "wanted to take part and did take part" in the 1965 coup, that the PKI leadership said these were independent organisati
Women's studies column, with note on Indonesian women's movement and polygamy (Edmonton Journal, 1972)
Edmonton Journal, 16 Aug 1972, p.20: a column on Women's Studies reviewing the essay collection Woman in Sexist Society. A short passage on non-Western women's status notes that Indonesian women's active economic role, and that the Indonesian women's movement's major goals were abolition of polygamy and divorce by repu
A political fighter: profile of Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno in Paris
De Tijd profile by Anton Koene (8 Feb 1974) of Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno in Paris, who is serialising her memoirs to clear Sukarno's name over the 1 Oct 1965 coup, rebuts the Widjanarko report in Dake's book and criticises Suharto's regime. Gerwani and Gerwani women are not mentioned.
Berita Harian, 3 Oct 1985: Indonesia twenty years after the PKI coup
Berita Harian, 3 Oct 1985, by Nahar Azmi Mahmud (lead only). Retrospective, twenty years after the 'failed PKI coup', noting the event remains sensitive in Indonesia. Matched on the Indonesian women's movement query; the lead does not mention Gerwani.
'No body issues, they reproach us for it': 40 years of the Dutch Women's Movement
Het Parool feature by Petra van Alten (30 Oct 1986) on the 40th anniversary of the Nederlandse Vrouwenbeweging (NVB): founding in 1946 from Algemene Vrouwenbonden and resistance women, its protests against Dutch Indonesia policy and troop sailings, Cold War isolation, affiliation to the Women's International Democratic
Lesbian women in the Third World: persecuted and recognised
Het Vrije Volk interview feature (9 Jul 1990, p.10) by Canis Zijlmans on anthropologist Saskia Wieringa's research on lesbian women in the Third World. One passage mentions her research in Indonesia on the 'three-million-member' communist women's organisation Gerwani, wiped out after Suharto's takeover, and lesbian lif
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
Something great was misjudged there
Het Parool feature by John Jansen van Galen (6 May 1995) ahead of the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence, on a Sunday gathering of four Indonesians and two Dutch scholars. The excerpt shows Francisca Fanggidaej recalling her childhood as 'equalised' with Europeans, estranged from her own culture and thinking i
Loyal (on the origins of Indonesian nationalism)
Het Parool (6 May 1995) continuation of the feature on the Indonesian road to independence. Francisca Fanggidaej recalls first hearing the word 'Indonesia' from a cousin; historians Harry Poeze and Pieter Droogleever and veterans Gondo Pratomo and Aky Djoehana discuss early nationalism, Perhimpunan Indonesia, ethical p
Folio: Channelling a national narcissism (Blokker column on Indies books)
Jan Blokker column in De Volkskrant (12 Aug 1995) reviewing Dutch books on the Indies and the colonial past. Mrs. S.K. Trimurti appears only as an interviewee quoted in H.C. Beynon's "Verboden voor honden en inlanders", on living with Inggit after Sukarno's 1933 arrest. Gerwani is not mentioned.
Cezanne (Trouw corrections column)
Trouw correction column (4 Oct 1995): a wrong phone number for the Cézanne exhibition, and a note that the 30 September article on the 1965 coup drew on Saskia Wieringa's research, due for her Amsterdam doctorate on 6 October, under-acknowledged. Gives her thesis title: The Politicization of Gender Relations in Indones
Suharto's fear of the voice of Gerwani (on Saskia Wieringa's research)
De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c