Dutch soldiers killed in Blitar; Salawati Daud arrested in Makassar
De Waarheid report (7 Nov 1949) on clashes between Dutch troops and guerrillas in Blitar, Central Java and South Sulawesi. It says Makassar municipal councillor Salawati Daud "has already been arrested", officially as head of a resistance group, and calls the East Indonesia government a puppet; companion to colonial-pr
Arrest of Sunito and Go Gien Tjwan: countermeasures demanded in Indonesia
De Waarheid, 9 Dec 1952, p. 4: Jakarta dispatch on reactions to the Dutch arrest of Indonesians Sunito and Go Gien Tjwan in Amsterdam and action against PKI representatives Aidit and Njoto. The PKI Central Committee calls it arbitrary and urges reprisals; Gerwis also asked the government for counter-measures. A Dutch p
Nasakom for now without 'kom': communists frozen but not yet eliminated
Twentsch Dagblad Tubantia (21 Oct 1965), H.L. Leffelaar from Jakarta: the freezing of the PKI is an army victory over Sukarno; Nasakom 'without kom'. A poster targets Mrs Subandrio, head of the women's federation (Kowani), for not yet suspending Gerwani. Hatta criticises communist land seizures; a minister recounts Unt
Nasakom for now without 'kom'; Subandrio increasingly cornered
Twentsch Dagblad Tubantia (21 Oct 1965), H.L. Leffelaar from Jakarta: the freezing of the PKI is an army victory over Sukarno; Nasakom 'without kom'. A poster targets Mrs Subandrio, head of the women's federation (Kowani), for not yet suspending Gerwani. Hatta criticises communist land seizures; a minister recounts Unt
US Consulate Surabaya 'Joint Sitrep 11', 4 November 1965: clean-up raids continue, Blitar a main concern, and Basuki Rachmat's East Java tour sealing off PKI areas. Regional military context of the repression; Gerwani not specifically named.
Armed Forces Information Centre, Intisari Berita, 2 December 1965: arrests of Gerwani members in Jakarta and Central...
Armed Forces Information Centre bulletin, 2 Desember 1965. Three Gerwani items: arrest of a woman Misnah, 'a Gerwani', at a Jakarta coffee stall with insinuations about 25 September; three Gerwani among those seized by Kodam Diponegoro; executioners' confessions in Blitar.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 16 August 1968
Angkatan Bersendjata, 16 Agustus 1968. Operasi Trisula commander Col. Witarmin reports the PKI underground in South Blitar crushed and lists captured leaders including five women, among them Nj. Gatot Sutarjo, 'chair of Gerwani'.
Duta Masjarakat, 19 August 1968
Duta Masjarakat, 19 Agustus 1968. Antara report on Operasi Trisula in South Blitar: 30 PKI 'big fish' captured, ten from Jakarta, said to be members of the 'CC and CDB PKI/Gerwani'; resisters 'sent to the hereafter'.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 21 August 1968: 'PKI Exploits Women'
Angkatan Bersendjata, 21 Agustus 1968: 'PKI eksploitir wanita2'. Part X of the 'Blitar Selatan' serial on Operasi Trisula: a 'love story' about a 'Red Women's Detachment' and profiles of three women arrested in South Blitar as 'tools of the PKI'.
Berita Yudha, 23 August 1968: The romantic PKI woman journalist
Berita Yudha, 23 Agustus 1968: 'Wartawan Wanita PKI jg romantis'. Feature on Sri Sukatno, 'ex-chair of Gerwani Jakarta', journalist and wife of a Pemuda Rakyat leader, after Operasi Trisula; sensational, romanticised gendered portrayal.
Angkatan Bersendjata, 24 August 1968
Angkatan Bersendjata, 24 Agustus 1968. Part XIII of the 'Blitar Selatan' serial tells the story of Sri Liestyowati (Lies) Sukatno, a 'PKI/Gerwani figure' and wife of a Pemuda Rakyat leader, with gendered and sensational claims about her beauty and demands in the forest.
Berita Yudha, 27 August 1968
Berita Yudha, 27 Agustus 1968. First instalment of 'Mengungkap petualangan P.K.I. Gaja Baru di Djatim' with a photo captioned 'Gerwani members of East Java hit by Operasi Trisula', naming Nj. Kartini as East Java Gerwani chair.
Berita Yudha, 30 August 1968
Berita Yudha, 30 Agustus 1968. Instalment IV of 'PKI Gaja Baru di Djatim': portrays Nj. Kartini, 'Gerwani deputy chair before G30S', disguised as a poor village woman and training cadres in forest 'schools'.
Sukarno's role: an exile at home (New York Times, 27 October 1968)
New York Times, 27 Oct 1968, p.5, Terence Smith from Jakarta: Sukarno lives under house arrest at Bogor and was interrogated in Sept-Oct 1968 about clandestine contacts with former associates, after Communists captured in the Blitar operations (2,000 killed or captured, including PKI chairman Oloan Hutapea) implicated
Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup (van der Kroef, 1970)
Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, spring 1970) on the PKI underground and army counter-campaign after 1965, from the Blitar and Purwodadi operations to political prisoners and Moscow/Beijing exile factions. Gerwani appears once (p.50): arrests of former Communists 'including members of Gerwani (the P
TAPOL Bulletin no. 6, August 1974. Covers the Hariman Siregar (Malari) trial, tapol forced labour on the Cilacap oil pipeline and Nusakambangan cement works, prison conditions, Australian and British military links and trials of 1965 detainees. It reports on Plantungan women's camp (food, commander Major Prayoga, death
Jawa Pos, 29 November 1977: two PKI figures, Ir. Moedjani and Ny. Kartini, tried
Jawa Pos, 29 Nov 1977: Tulungagung subversion trial of Ir. Moedjani and Ny. Kartini alias Widji, 'chair of Gerwani East Java' and former Surabaya teacher, captured in the 1968 South Blitar (Trisula) operation.
TAPOL Bulletin no. 54 (London, Nov 1982), 24 pages, mostly on West Papua, East Timor, Borobudur and military law. Its 'Spotlight on Two Tapols' profiles Napsiah, a veteran of Pesindo/Perwari who joined the PKI in 1949, helped build Gerwani in East Java and sat on the PKI East Java committee. Arrested in 1968 after the
Untung (Djoko Untung and Gatot Sutarjo sentenced to death)
De Waarheid item (21 Aug 1985, p.3) profiling death-row PKI prisoners Djoko Untung and Gatot Sutarjo, sentenced at Blitar on 2 Jan 1976, with Suharto rejecting clemency. Untung's wife Natsia, a known East Java Gerwani member, was arrested in 1968 and still imprisoned; Sutarjo's wife Poedji Aswati was jailed for 15 year
Issue no. 71 (September 1985) of TAPOL Bulletin, the British campaign for Indonesian political prisoners. It carries an anonymous ex-prisoner's article on the 'G30S/PKI' symbol, reports on death-row prisoners, the Gatot defence statement, harassment of ex-prisoners and military reorganisation. Gerwani appears only once
Harian Neraca serial 'Siapa menabur angin akan menuai badai' (87): South Blitar remnant base and formation of Trisula
Harian Neraca, 14 April 1989, p. 10: instalment 87 of Soegiarso Soerojo's serial. Army's view of the PKI remnant base in South Blitar (1967–68), the capture of Aidit's alleged adjutant Kusno and the formation of Trisula; Gerwani mentioned.
Harian Neraca serial 'Siapa menabur angin akan menuai badai' (90): South Blitar captures; 'Gerwani leaders try to flee'
Harian Neraca, 18 April 1989, p. 10: instalment 90 of Soegiarso Soerojo's serial. July 1968 captures in South Blitar; sub-chapter 'Gerwani leaders try to flee' on hunting Gerwani women Ny. Lies Soekatno (alias Djemirah), Bu Djoyo, Ny. Moedji and others.
Frau L's fight for justice: 80-year-old Lestari wishes that no one fears her any more (Keller, 2012)
Anett Keller's 2012 reportage (südostasien, German) on Lestari, an 80-year-old Gerwani co-founder in a Jakarta house of ex-prisoners: Gerwani's literacy and kindergarten work, her husband a PKI East Java leader, flight, arrest in Malang, 1979 release and life as an 'ET' domestic worker. Life-history portrait.
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Not only on Buru Island (Operations Kalong and Trisula)
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on Operasi Kalong (Jakarta, from Aug 1966) and Trisula (Blitar, 1968), Kopkamtib interrogation and torture sites (Gunung Sahari II, Plantungan, Jalan Gandhi, Kemaro, Moncongloe), with torture methods (electric shock, stingray whip, 'ayat kursi'). It lists other intelligence task forces, one at
Koran Memo, 1 October 2014: Confession of a former Gerwani member in Blitar
Koran Memo (Kediri), 1 Oct 2014, p. 5: interview with Putmainah (86), former chair of Gerwani in Blitar regency and PKI member of the DPR-GR, ten years in Plantungan; recalls PKI and NU as allies in local parliament.
Social and economic life of ex-tapol in South Blitar 1968-2000 (Masruroh et al., 2022)
2022 article by a Universitas Jember team on ex-political prisoners in South Blitar 1968-2000: weekly reporting, loss of civil rights (1.58 million excluded from the 1982 election), the 'ET' ID code and bans on marrying soldiers. Context on post-release control.