Plantungan concentration camp

[12] Most of the prisoners had been arrested in various places in Indonesia after the anti-communist repression following the 1965 30 September Movement, and many were members of mass women's organizations like Gerwani.

[12] Among the high-profile detainees at Plantungan, during its years of operation, were a number of Gerwani leaders and other leftist women, as well as the wives of high-ranking communists who were interned elsewhere.

These included Umi Sardjono, former chair of Gerwani; Salawati Daud, a journalist and independence figure; Mia Bustam, and artist and wife of the painter Sindu Sudjojono; Dr. Sumiyarsi Siwirini, a left-wing activist, medical doctor and head of the Indonesian Association of University Graduates; and Siti Suratih, a midwife and wife of high-ranking Communist Party leader Oloan Hutapea.

[1] Dr. Sumiyarsi in particular gained a high profile while imprisoned at Plantungan; she ran a medical unit in the camp which eventually attracted patients from surrounding areas.

[14] Conditions in the camp were far from the worst in the whole system of political imprisonment; but they were still not good, with prisoners forced to participate in manual labour, denied the right of contact with their family, exposed to dangerous animals, verbally abused, and not allowed to read anything but religious literature.

[14] In late 1975, a delegation of Indonesian academics led by recently retired General Sumitro visited the camp and interviewed the internees in depth, subjecting them to psychological tests.