TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Indonesia's Ex-Ruler Suharto Dies

ADVERTISEMENT

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, The Associated Press

Published: January 28, 2008

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Former Indonesian President Suharto, a Cold War ally of the United States whose brutal military regime killed hundreds of thousands of left-wing political opponents, died Sunday. He was 86.

Although he oversaw some of the worst bloodshed of the 20th century, Suharto is credited with developing the economy and will be buried with the highest state honors today at the family mausoleum.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and others from the country's political elite prayed over his body. Yudhoyono declared a week of national mourning and called on Indonesians "to pay their last respects to one of Indonesia's best sons."

Suharto loyalists, who run the courts, called for forgiveness and a clearing of his name. But survivors want those responsible for atrocities to be held accountable.

"I cannot understand why I have to forgive Suharto because he never admitted his mistakes," said Putu Oka Sukanta, who spent a decade in prison because of his left-wing sympathies.

Suharto was finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998 at the peak of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

His departure from office opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people. He withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable Jakarta villa.

Suharto ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a fear of authority across this Southeast Asian archipelago that stretches across more than 3,000 miles.

Since being forced from power, Suharto had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech. He died of multiple-organ failure after more than three weeks on life support at a hospital in the capital, Jakarta.

Poor health - and continuing corruption, critics charge - kept him from court after he was chased from office.

The bulk of killings occurred in 1965-66, when alleged communists were rounded up and slain during his rise to power. Estimates for the death toll range from a government figure of 78,000 to 1 million cited by U.S. historians Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr, who have published books on Indonesia's history.

During Indonesia's 1975-99 occupation of East Timor, up to 183,000 people died because of killings, disappearances, hunger and illness, according to an East Timorese commission sanctioned by the United Nations. Similar abuses left more than 100,000 dead in West Papua, according a local human rights group. Another 15,000 died during a 29-year separatist rebellion in Aceh province.

Suharto's five successors as head of state all vowed to end the graft that took root under his regime, yet it remains endemic at all levels of Indonesian society.

Bush Offers Condolences

President Bush sent his regrets over Suharto's death. "President Bush expresses his condolences to the people of Indonesia on the loss of their former president," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

Even Suharto's critics agree his hard-line policies kept a lid on Indonesia's extremists and held together the ethnically diverse and geographically vast nation. He jailed without trial hundreds of suspected Islamic militants, some of whom later carried out deadly suicide bombings with the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

'Father Of Development'

Meanwhile, the ruling clique that formed around Suharto transformed Indonesia's economy and attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment.

By the late 1980s, Suharto was describing himself as Indonesia's "father of development," taking credit for slowly reducing the number of abjectly poor and modernizing parts of the nation.

But the government also became notorious for unfettered nepotism, and Indonesia was regularly ranked as one of the world's most corrupt nations as Suharto's inner circle amassed fabulous wealth. The World Bank estimates 20 percent to 30 percent of Indonesia's development budget was embezzled during his rule.

Even today, Suharto's children and aging associates have considerable sway over the country's business, politics and courts. Efforts to recover the money have been fruitless.

Suharto's wife of 49 years, Indonesian royal Siti Hartinah, died in 1996. The couple had three sons and three daughters.

LEADER'S PATH

June 8, 1921: Born in central Java to a poor rice-farming family.

June 1941: After working at a bank, enlists in Dutch colonial army.

1942: Joins collaborationist unit set up by Japanese occupation army that after World War II leads fight to win independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1949.

1953: Appointed regional army commander in central Java.

1959: Accused of engaging in corrupt business ventures.

1964: Appointed commander of army's reserve force.

Sept. 30, 1965: Leads effort to put down military rebellion he blames on communists.

March 11, 1966: Assumes power from Indonesia's founding President Sukarno, leads purge that kills up to 1 million.

1968: Unanimously elected by legislature to first five-year term as president. Re-elected unopposed in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

Dec. 7, 1975: Orders invasion of East Timor, newly independent from Portuguese rule.

May 21, 1998: Resigns amid street protests and riots.

2000: Indicted for allegedly embezzling nearly $600 million, but judges rule him not healthy enough to stand trial.

May 4, 2006: Hospitalized for fourth time since ouster, suffering from internal bleeding.

May 12, 2006: Corruption indictment withdrawn by the government, citing Suharto's poor health.

Sept. 10, 2006: Indonesia's Supreme Court orders Time magazine to pay $106 million for defaming Suharto by alleging his family amassed billions of dollars during his reign. Magazine vows to appeal.

Jan. 27, 2008: Dies in Jakarta of multiple-organ failure.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT