Indonesian ex-leader under house arrest

The move comes as the government prepares to try Suharto on corruption charges.

©New York Times, published May 30, 2000

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Under intense public pressure to get tough, the Indonesian government placed former President Suharto under house arrest Monday as it sought to bring him to trial for corruption and abuse of power.

Suharto, 78, has been debilitated by three strokes and apparently has difficulty communicating. He has managed, with the help of his lawyers, to complicate repeated attempts by investigators to question him in his home.

The house arrest, which does not materially change Suharto's living conditions, was instituted "to smooth the investigation and in order to finish the case as scheduled," said Yushar Yahya, a spokesman for Attorney General Marzuki Darusman.

During a round of questioning at his home Monday morning, Suharto personally signed an acknowledgment of the order placing him under house arrest, although people who were there said he seemed halting, forgetful and confused.

During the three-hour session, Suharto "had difficulty grasping the questions because they were too long," said his lawyer, Juan Felix Tampubolon. "He haltingly tried to answer the questions, but what came out was different. There were a lot of things he could not remember."

Monday's move came almost exactly two years after Suharto, the all-powerful president for 32 years, stepped down -- on May 21, 1998 -- in the face of riots and student protests and under pressure from defecting government ministers and even from his most loyal military leaders.

The two-week house arrest order, renewable in 30-day increments, carried a powerful symbolism in a nation that is struggling, sometimes chaotically, to convert itself from Suharto's iron-fisted rule to an open democratic system.

The order responds to an overwhelming public desire for accountability that has shown itself most forcefully in frequent, sometimes violent student demonstrations. These have taken place in the dappled streets outside Suharto's home in a quiet neighborhood of central Jakarta, where he lived throughout his presidency and retreated in calm retirement two years ago.

It is also part of a broad government program to investigate and potentially mete out punishment for a broad array of abuses ranging as far back as the massacres of hundreds of thousands of people during an anti-communist purge in 1965 and 1966, when Suharto seized power.

Suharto is accused of abusing his power in issuing presidential decrees that he used to enrich himself, his six children and his cronies and supporters. The case focuses particularly on seven charitable trusts that Suharto fed by mandating donations from the national budget.

The attorney general has said he expects the investigation to be completed and any charges brought by Aug. 10. At that time, President Abdurrahman Wahid must present the legislature with an annual state-of-the nation address.

But much of Suharto's wealth, estimated in the billions or even tens of billions of dollars, has so far been difficult to trace. Like the so-called "hidden wealth" of former President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who was forced from office in 1986, it may never be recovered.

Separate investigations have been opened against some of the Suharto children, who continue to control large portions of the Indonesian economy. The man known as Suharto's "first friend," Bob Hasan, is also under investigation for corruption.

These investigations, although seemingly slow and politically difficult, are one of the clearest signs that Wahid's administration represents a clear break with the past.

His predecessor, B.J. Habibie, an acolyte of Suharto's who held office for 17 months, tiptoed around the corruption issue and formally dropped an investigation as one of his last and most unpopular acts, just before being voted out of office in October.

Days later, Marzuki, the new attorney general, reopened the case, and in February Suharto was formally named a suspect.

But, treading a delicate political line, Wahid has said he would pardon Suharto if he is convicted, provided that he returns his stolen wealth to the nation.

Though sick, disgraced and out of sight, Suharto remains one of the dominant personalities in Indonesia. Until two years ago he was the only president 65 percent of the population had ever known. The nation's currency still carries his portrait.

And although Suharto is out of power, his shadow still casts a chill among many Indonesians. Many see his hand -- or the hand of his disenfranchised supporters -- behind a continuing series of destabilizing violent incidents around the country.

In the past two days, at least four bombs have hit Christian churches in the Sumatran city of Medan in this largely Muslim nation of 210-million people. More than 60 people were reported injured.

Other violence that has been fomented or aggravated by outsiders continued in the far eastern Spice Islands and in the north Sumatran province of Aceh.

Monday's order for house arrest will allow investigators to question the former president every day if they choose to, Yahya said. He added without elaborating that it would also "prevent him from destroying evidence."

The order was something of a retreat for the attorney general, who had said he planned to move Suharto into government custody elsewhere. That suggestion received opposition even from within the Cabinet, where some members called it excessively harsh and warned of the fragility of the former president's health.

Taking a hard line, Marzuki warned Friday that the large deployment of police officers that has held protesters at bay in front of Suharto's house would be withdrawn if he did not offer more cooperation to investigators.

It was not clear, though, how Monday's formal detention order would affect the course of the questioning, which apparently proceeded as best it could earlier in the day.

"The target has been met, meaning that all the questions have been answered," said Dr. Supardi Sudibyo, head of the state-appointed medical team for Suharto.

Tampubolon had tried to cut short the session, complaining that Suharto's blood pressure soared when he was questioned about the charitable foundations. But Sudibyo said the former president's blood pressure "normally goes up after a questioning session."

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