The Anti-Communist Campaign in Indonesia: A Chronology (USIA R-158-65), Nov 1965
USIA Research and Reference Service report R-158-65 (November 1965), a chronology of the anti-Communist campaign in Indonesia, 1-20 October 1965, built on Indonesian and foreign radio and press. Gerwani entries: Suharto's 4 Oct TV statement linking the generals' murders to Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani training grounds; NU
The masses did not rise (The Hindustan Times, 8 December 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth (Singapore), 'PKI Debacle I: The Masses Did Not Rise': analysis of why the PKI collapsed after the 1 Oct coup: overrated membership, reliance on Sukarno and on army and air force penetration, no general strike, SOBSI dissolving. It reports Untung's alleged claim that m
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
US Embassy Djakarta, Joint Sitrep No. 68, Telegram 1842 (22 December 1965)
US Embassy Djakarta telegram 1842, Joint Sitrep No. 68 (22 Dec 1965, Secret, sanitized, OCR rough). Reports Sukarno's speeches defending the PKI, including a Mother's Day gathering where he defended the PKI's women's affiliate (Gerwani), Nasution's 'basic guide' for crushing the PKI, the PNI purge, anti-Chinese violenc
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
Thai Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee communique condemns Indonesian military killings and arrests
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao (19 Apr 1966, p. 4) of a 13 April communiqué by the Thai Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Committee condemning Indonesia's military and 'reactionaries': 78,500 killed and 106,000 arrested per the Fact-Finding Commission in Bali, Java and North Sumatra; bans on Pemuda Rakyat, CGMI, Gerwani, B
Social Conditions Leading to Military Dominance: the case of Indonesia (Kahane, 1974)
Journal article by Reuven Kahane (Contributions to Asian Studies, vol. 5, 1974) giving a structural-sociological explanation of the 1965 coup and army dominance in Indonesia: religious-class polarisation, failing Sukarno-era control mechanisms, and the army's rise. Gerwani appears only in a footnote listing PKI-affilia
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
Destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party: East Java and Bali compared (Sudjatmiko, 1992)
Iwan Gardono Sudjatmiko's 1992 Harvard sociology PhD thesis compares East Java and Bali to explain the PKI's destruction after 1965, arguing that it followed from the party's 1963 revolutionary strategy and that violence depended on public figures, army units and PKI size. It covers mobilisation, land reform and local
The Forgotten Years: Mass Slaughter in Jombang-Kediri 1965-1966 (Sulistyo, 1997)
Hermawan Sulistyo's 1997 Arizona State history PhD, 'The Forgotten Years', studies the 1965-66 killings in Jombang-Kediri, East Java, from interviews and documents, finding no single national pattern and stressing local conflict and military-backed operations. Gerwani appears in passing: its claimed 1.75 million member
Killing off the communists (South China Morning Post, 17 July 1999)
South China Morning Post, 17 July 1999, p.37, Marian Wilkinson (Sydney Morning Herald), 'Killing off the communists': newly released US embassy and CIA cables show US officials encouraging the army's anti-PKI campaign in Oct-Nov 1965, urging anti-PKI propaganda that links 'diabolical murder and mutilation of the genera
Confronting the Past: the anticommunist killings of 1965-66 and the role of Nahdlatul Ulama (McGregor, 2009)
Katharine McGregor's 2009 article on NU's support for the 1965-66 killings (e.g. its 5 Oct 1965 call to ban the PKI, Gerwani and others), their celebration under the New Order and Syarikat's post-1998 reconciliation work. Context on religious-organisation role.
Tempo, 1 October 2012: AM - 'We never buried them...' (Ansor member's testimony)
Tempo testimony (1 Oct 2012) of 'AM', 70, a former Ansor/Banser member who took part in night-time 'drop-dropan' killings of village-level PKI leaders in Badas and Pare (Jombang-Kediri), Oct-Nov 1965. He says he felt no pity and left bodies unburied, justifying his hatred by PKI land reform actions. Gerwani is not ment
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Chambali - 'He recited the creed fluently...'
Tempo testimony (1 Oct 2012) of Chambali, 70, former Banser chief of Rengel, Tuban, who describes beheading PKI members at Jurang Watu Rongko in 1965-66 on lists from the district office and military, encouraged by NU leader Kiai Murtadji. Recalls sparing one man who recited the creed. Tempo adds a note on the ravine's
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Butchers in the killing fields (Kediri and Probolinggo)
Long Tempo feature (1 Oct 2012) on Kediri and Probolinggo killings: Ansor/Banser, Lirboyo santri led by Gus Maksum and army units, from the 13 Oct 1965 rally and the burning of the PKI office, using 'drop' trucks from Koramil, with the Kanigoro (Jan 1965) background. Testimony of Abdul Malik and Haji SY. Gerwani is not
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Doomsday born of grudges (Banyuwangi massacre)
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on Banyuwangi: the 'Gagak Hitam' force of NU/PNI members hunted communists after 62 Ansor were killed at Cemethuk (commemorated at the Pancasila Jaya monument, called Lubang Buaya Cemethuk). Testimony of Baidawi and ex-Lekra secretary Andang Chatif Yusuf; bodies thrown into Jurang Tangis. Gerw
Tempo, 1 October 2012: The Tulungagung fighter in shackles
Tempo profile (1 Oct 2012) of Supardi, 71, a Tulungagung silat fighter recruited by Ansor as an executioner in 1965, who later developed a mental disorder and has been shackled by his family for about 30 years. Account from his brother Marjuni and sister. Gerwani is not mentioned.
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Graves above wells (Lumajang and Magetan)
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on killing sites in Lumajang (Pandanwangi, Curah Mayit, Srebet) and Magetan (Puhrancang well, Gangsiran forest), with testimony from Ansor/Banser participants and villagers. Notes NU leaders called it jihad, army backing, and that many victims were not PKI. Gerwani is not mentioned.
Tempo, 1 October 2012: After 'God died' at Mlancu
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on the Mlancu massacre (Kediri-Jombang border), where about 700 alleged PKI were killed in November 1965, drawing on Hermawan Sulistyo's research and witnesses. Presents PKI land reform, ludruk plays and 'Seven Village Demons' lists as roots of tension with kiai and NU/Ansor. Mentions the Peng
The Cold War in the City of Heroes: US-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya (Setiyawan, 2014)
PhD dissertation in History (UCLA, 2014) by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan on U.S. anti-communist operations and the 1965-66 purge in Surabaya. Gerwani appears in context: as the PKI's women's affiliate (ch. 1), through the Surabaya women's coalition GOWS in the 27 September 1965 Grahadi demonstration (ch. 4), and in the Army
Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (Stroud, 2015)
Martha Stroud's 2015 UC Berkeley/UCSF medical-anthropology dissertation, based on fieldwork in Yogyakarta (2010-12), examines how the 1965-66 killings shape daily life through propaganda, surveillance, stigma, silence and justice. Gerwani appears mainly as the object of New Order propaganda: the Lubang Buaya mutilation
Tempo.co, 2 October 2015: Putmainah, the Gerwani-PKI podium lioness who forgot September
Tempo.co profile (2 Oct 2015, by Bobby Chandra) of Putmainah, 77, former Gerwani chair and PKI faction member of the Blitar DPRD, now stroke-afflicted in Pakisrejo, Srengat. Her husband Subandi, Blitar Front Nasional and DPRD head, was killed after a PKI congress; she fled into the forest with seven children. Once a re