Sumiyarsi Siwirini

Sumiyarsi Siwirini (20 November 1925 – 17 July 2003), whose name was sometimes spelled Sumiarsih, was an Indonesian doctor, writer, activist, and political prisoner. She was imprisoned in the Plantungan concentration camp by the Indonesian government during the 1970s, where she became well known for running a medical clinic staffed by fellow prisoners; in the anticommunist propaganda of the Indonesian military she was portrayed as the "doctor of Lubang Buaya."

Biography Early life and career Sumiyarsi Siwirini was born in Surakarta, Central Java, Dutch East Indies on 20 November 1925.

She was not at home when it was raided, and she managed to evade arrest and spent some time hiding out in other parts of Jakarta, with the help of friends and the HSI, including at the Hotel Indonesia where a conference was taking place. While there, she was allowed to resume practicing medicine, at first among the other prisoners, and then among the local population, who did not have access to adequate medical care. She was often paid in food and was eventually allowed to travel outside of the camp to see patients. Because of the clinic, she became well known among the other prisoners and is featured prominently in many of their accounts.

In the mid-1970s the Indonesian government came under increasing scrutiny by Amnesty International and other organizations for their indefinite imprisonment of large number of political prisoners. Plantungan camp became the focus of campaigns as well. The government therefore made gestures to release some Plantungan prisoners; but others such as Sumiyarsi, the artist Mia Bustam, and the former DPRD representative Sumarni were judged to be "hard-core" communists and were not allowed to be released. A group of 45 of those "hard-core" prisoners, including Sumiyarsi, were transferred from Plantungan to Bulu prison in Semarang in December 1976; the loss of her medical clinic sorely worsened the conditions of the remaining Plantungan prisoners.