South China Sunday Morning Post, 23 Apr 2000, p.10, Vaudine England: profile of Sudjinah Halina (72), former Gerwani activist and political prisoner, as Indonesia reopens debate on 1965. She recounts Solo childhood, guerrilla courier work (1947-49), study at Gadjah Mada, the 1955 Prague youth festival, a job with the WIDF in Berlin and travels abroad, journalism from 1958, arrest in 1967 (beaten after betrayal) and 17 years' imprisonment until 1984. She calls the Suharto-era film showing naked Gerwani women a lie and now documents survivors' stories.
South China Sunday Morning Post, 23 Apr 2000, hlm. 10, Vaudine England: profil Sudjinah Halina (72), mantan aktivis Gerwani dan tahanan politik, saat Indonesia membuka kembali perdebatan 1965. Ia menceritakan masa kecil di Solo, Tentara Pelajar dan kurir gerilya (1947-49), kuliah di UGM hingga 1955, festival pemuda Praha 1955, bekerja di WIDF di Berlin dan perjalanan ke luar negeri, jurnalis sejak 1958, ditangkap 1967 (dipukuli setelah dikhianati) dan dipenjara 17 tahun hingga 1984. Ia menyebut film Orde Baru tentang perempuan Gerwani telanjang sebagai kebohongan dan kini mendokumentasikan kisah penyintas.
“Sudjinah: 'There was no problem then. We were proud to be members of Gerwani, we were proud to be communists'; she calls the film of naked Gerwani women dancing over the generals' corpses 'the fake version'.”
Bali Post, 7 Apr 2000, p. 7: editorial on Wahid's proposal to revoke the 1966 PKI ban, saying the military's stories of sadism by Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat made the killings 'barbarity' in public memory and enabled mass slaughter.
shared: Wahid's proposal to revoke the 1966 PKI ban, Abdurrahman Wahid, Lubang Buaya and sexual slander
British FCO file FCO 15/2701 (1980), 'Political detainees in Indonesia': Amnesty International's April 1980 letter and memorandum to the UK government before the IGGI meeting, on release of B-category prisoners, restrictions on ex-detainees, missing persons and unfair A-category trials, plus TAPOL Bulletin extracts (No
shared: Suharto, Sudjinah, human rights advocacy, life after release
Ariel Heryanto essay in Tempo (1 Oct 2012) on state terror, propaganda film and the 1965 wound, from Supersemar and the Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI film to post-1998 indie documentaries and The Act of Killing. One passage states Gerwani leaders were detained, raped, tortured and portrayed as immoral mutilators in army press
shared: National Commission on Human Rights, Suharto, Franz Magnis-Suseno, Lubang Buaya and sexual slander
Kedaulatan Rakyat, 31 July 2017: at an IARMI Central Java reunion in Semarang a veteran of the student regiment recalls joining ABRI's post-G30S security operation, guarding Gerwani detainees and helping interrogate.
shared: Semarang, independence revolution, life after release, oral history
The Observer, 12 Aug 1979, p.8, 'Prisoners of Conscience': Amnesty International notes up to 20,000 untried political prisoners remain in Indonesia and takes up four women active in Gerwani, arrested 1966 and tried nine years later: Sulami (20 years), Sudjinah (18), Sri Ambar Rukmiati and Suharti Harsono (15 each). It
shared: Suharto, Sudjinah, human rights advocacy, prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
shared: Suharto, Sudjinah, Central Java, prisons
Tribune (Sydney), 20 May 1975, p. 7, abridged from the British magazine TAPOL (Mar 1975): thousands of women remain among about 100,000 political prisoners. Describes Gerwani's work, its banning, the sexual slander ('sex-maniacs', mutilation claims) as fuelling the massacres, torture and rape of women tapols, Plantunga
shared: Suharto, Sudjinah, Central Java, prisons
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
shared: National Commission on Human Rights, Suharto, Abdurrahman Wahid