Surviving Indonesia's Gulag

Carmel Budiardjo spent three years in detention without trial as a suspected communist in Indonesia in the late 1960s. In this moving account of her time in detention centres and the notorious Bukit Duri Prison in Jakarta, she describes the suffering of her fellow political prisoners and her own experience of interrogation and torment. The account of her personal experiences is interwoven with a narrative of the political situation which led to her arrest, especially the events of 1965 which culminated in the murder of several Generals and the following massacre by the authorities of over a million people. Many of the women jailed with Carmel Budiardjo were little more than children when they were arrested and forced to make false confessions about their involvement in the Generals' murders. These young women were held without trial for over 10 years. Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Suharto's rise to power, this book exposes the brutal Indonesian regime which has continued to enjoy the support of the West.