Conversations with some ministers
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1947-07-05, Antara, Yogyakarta, 4 July): interviews with new ministers. Labour Minister Mrs. S.K. Trimurti says the labour organisation must be strengthened and led to the national battle front, notes production shortfalls from Dutch and Japanese destruction, and wages depend on consumption; E
Difficulties expected from guerrilla troops in Celebes
Nieuwe Courant, 20 December 1950: Salawati Daud, who negotiated on the government's behalf with South Sulawesi guerrilla leaders, tells Antara there are about 12,000 armed guerrillas (Kesatuan Gerilya Sulawesi Selatan) in the mountains, unrelated to the RMS, who helped government troops in the August Makassar disturban
Dr. Hurustiati Subandrio's Impressions of Copenhagen
Api Kartini interview-report with Dr. Hurustiati Subandrio, head of the Indonesian women's delegation to the Copenhagen International Women's Conference (April 1960, 73 countries). She chaired the first plenary on 21 April (Kartini Day), sat on the Presidium and chaired the Education and Culture Commission; other deleg
Dance, Music, Architecture: Testimony to Indonesian Culture (Lüders and Bothas)
Women of the Whole World, 1961: staff writer Kate Lüders interviews Dagmar Bothas about a four-month government-guest visit to Java, Bali and Kalimantan, emphasising dance, music, temples and the literacy campaign (Minister Prijono). Gerwani appears only in a caption about May Day demonstrations; background material.
Berita Yudha, 1 October 1966
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.
Berita Yudha, 9 October 1966 (Sunday edition)
Berita Yudha, 9 Oktober 1966 (edisi Minggu). Serialised interview with police agent Sukitman, 'the only witness' at Lubang Buaya, describing the well area 'full of PR/Gerwani volunteers' with 'savage faces' shouting 'ganyang kabir' as officers were shot.
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
TAPOL Bulletin no. 16, June 1976, issued before the IGGI meeting. Contents: smuggled letter on prison torture including sexual torture of women (some miscarried), Fraser congressional hearings with Benedict Anderson, Sudomo interview on categories A/B/C and Buru, analysis of Oei Tju Tat's trial, Papuan killings, Amnest
Interview with Maria Ulfah Santoso: PKI and Gerwani tried to control Kowani (Tempo, c. 1977; JPRS)
JPRS translation of a Tempo profile (c. early 1977) of Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. Serang 1911): her marriage to political prisoner Soebadio Sastrosatomo with Subandrio's help (Jan 1964), early women's-movement work, Perwari and Kowani, and the PSI. She says that during her 11 years leading Kowani from 1952, 'PKI and Gerwa
Conversation on the 35th anniversary of the Dutch Women's Movement (Annie van Ommeren-Averink)
De Waarheid interview (20 Oct 1981, p.5) with Annie van Ommeren-Averink, CPN politician and NVB board member, on the NVB's 35th anniversary. She recalls labour and women's struggles; a photo of Umi Sardjono, freed after years of imprisonment, hangs in her home, last seen in March 1965, and she works for the CPN's Indon
The Chinese: at school parties we were equal, that was modern (Go Gien Tjwan)
Interview with Dr Go Gien Tjwan in NRC Handelsblad's 'Hun Indië' series (30 Apr 1988): memories of peranakan Chinese life in colonial Malang, racial hierarchy, schooling, Chinese revival in the 1930s and student politics at Batavia under Wertheim. Background on Chinese Indonesians; no Gerwani content.
From politics to mysticism: S.K. Trimurti in her own words (Tempo, 21 Apr 1990)
Tempo profile (21 April 1990), in S.K. Trimurti's own first-person voice, of her life from teacher and Partindo cadre to labour minister and spiritualist. She says she co-founded Gerwis around 1950 (Ketua III, Yogyakarta), that Gerwis became Gerwani at its third congress under Umi Sardjono, and that in 1965 she quit Ge
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
TAPOL Bulletin No. 105, Jun 1991: interview with former Timorese prisoner (Tangerang, 'Mama Sundari')
TAPOL Bulletin no. 105 (June 1991). In an interview (pp. 11-12) East Timorese ex-prisoner Domingas Coelho describes Tangerang women's prison from 1984, where she shared Blok Anggrek with two elderly PKI prisoners, Sundari Abdulrahaman ('Mama Sundari') and Tati, who nursed her and taught her embroidery, fieldwork and In
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.
Tempo, 29 August 1999: Interview with Sulami - 'I have an obsession to expose the G30S killings'
Tempo interview (29 Aug 1999) with Sulami, former Deputy Secretary-General II of Gerwani, with a short biography: arrested 12 Feb 1967 on Amir Machmud's order, tried 1975, released 1984, torture by rattan between fingers and threats of rape; founded the 1965-66 victims research foundation. She denies any Gerwani role a
Bali Post, 13 March 2000: interview with Hardoyo, '... the PKI remains a mystery'
Bali Post, 13 Mar 2000, p. 11: Wimar Witoelar interview with ex-CGMI leader Hardoyo, stating that the autopsy showed Gerwani did not mutilate the generals, a story that had inflamed mass killings.
Bali Post, 23 April 2000: interview with Ida Ayu Sutiti Wirati Diwangkara
Bali Post, 23 Apr 2000, p. 3: interview with Balinese educator and DPRGR member Ida Ayu Sutiti Wirati Diwangkara, who says she represented 'women' in the DPRGR where women's associations like Gerwani were represented; rich on women's education.
'Indonesia must work on national reconciliation'
Algemeen Dagblad (2000-05-27, Nina Eberlijn, Jakarta): Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad discusses the near-impossibility of prosecuting Suharto-era abuses and a South African-style truth commission; Kontras cites ~16,000 missing. Sulami, jailed 20 years as a Gerwani activist, says reconciliation needs victims' test
State actions regarding G30S: Gadamerian study of survivors (Atmaja, 2012)
2012 article by Hamdan Tri Atmaja using Gadamerian hermeneutics and interviews with seven survivors (two women held at Plantungan) on how they interpret state actions after G30S: readings of the coup, groundless arrests and interrogation.
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.
Women Survivors Speak of the 1965 Mass Killings in Indonesia (Global Voices, 2015)
Global Voices feature (30 Oct 2015; Indonesian repost 2016) on AJAR's project interviewing 26 women survivors, with photos and testimony of Vena Taka, Kadmiyati, Frangkina Boboy and Migelina Markus. Women survivors' testimony and demands for justice.
Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia (Roosa, 2020)
John Roosa's 2020 book, from nearly 400 interviews, arguing the typical 1965-66 killing was army execution of detainees (hence mass disappearance); dissects army propaganda including how Gen. Sugandhi sexualised Lubang Buaya from 9 Oct 1965. Key scholarship.
Tempo.co, 11 November 2025: Saskia Wieringa - the Suharto regime was highly militaristic, like today (danger of Suharto
Tempo.co interview (11 Nov 2025, Shinta Maharani and Juli Hantoro) with Saskia Wieringa, known for Gerwani research, on Suharto's designation as national hero. She says it perpetuates symbolic violence and impunity (Drexler), recalls the brutal 1965 slander of Gerwani and the 'Gerwani baru' label, and argues Suharto de
Tempo.co, 22 December 2025: Saskia Wieringa - LGBT discrimination a colonial legacy
Tempo.co interview (22 Dec 2025, Savero Aristia Wienanto and Reza Maulana) with Saskia Wieringa on her book on the Indonesian lesbian, bisexual and trans movement. She traces discrimination to colonialism and says the 1965 sexual slander of Gerwani, accused of cutting generals' genitals while dancing erotically, was In
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.
Tempo.co, 21 September 2026: Oka Rusmini - recording the wounds of women survivors of 1965
Tempo.co interview (21 Sep 2026, Yosea Arga) with Balinese writer Oka Rusmini about her poetry book 'Kembang' (28 Aug 2026), inspired by the film 'You and I' on survivors Kusdalini and Karminah. She discusses women's layered trauma, state stigma and sexual violence; one poem evokes the slander of young women prisoners