Indonesia Opens Probe of Suharto, Questions Ex-Dictator

by Andreas Harsono

A representative told the media that the 78-year-old retired general was relaxed during the questioning and seriously answered the questions, "but he needed two breaks during that long questioning."

This is the first time in Indonesia's modern history that a former president is being investigated on corruption charges. Former president Sukarno, Suharto's predecessor, also faced pressure to be questioned in the late 1960s, but he was put under house arrest until he died in June 1971.

Suharto himself declined to comment. Clad in dark yellow batik shirt, he smiled and made a brief statement, less than two minutes in length.

"I have met the summons of the attorney general to give the necessary information. "If there is a need for further questions, I have said that I will always be prepared to cater to any needs of the attorney general," Suharto said, before being whisked into a dark blue Mercedes with four-wheel drive and pulling away from the tightly guarded office.

The spokesman of the attorney general's office, Barman Zahir, told journalists, "This was all in the framework of a preliminary investigation." Zahir did not say whether Suharto would be recalled, and when asked if Suharto had been named a suspect said: "Not yet."

"I'm pessimist. This is only a political play to kill the time. What is the use of only questioning Suharto? Why don't make him immediately as the defendant?" asked political scientist Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia. Some media called it a "political soap opera" and "political theater."

"Habibie just tries to create an impression that his government dares enough to investigate Suharto. But in the end, the result would be a big zero," soothsayer- cum- activist Permadi Satrio Wiwoho of the Indonesian Democratic Party was quoted in the Merdeka daily.

Calls to investigate the wealth of the Suhartos even came from the ruling party Golkar, which stated last month that Attorney General Andi Muhammad Ghalib should put Suharto under house arrest.

Last month students embarrassed Ghalib when the outraged protesters presented him with a chicken. A chicken is a symbol of cowardice among many ethnic groups in Indonesia.

Ghalib refused to investigate, insisting that Suharto was the kind of person who will not flee from his responsibilities. Ghalib also said repeatedly that Suharto has never had any difficulty in doing so when asked to prove his innoncence.

Apparently hoping to establish a compromise, Suharto himself handed over the funds of seven private foundations. The foundations have shares valued at $530 million in a host of private companies.

Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who heads the widely-diversified Humpuss business group, however, challenged the protesters "not only to protest but to prove" the corruption charges. Instead of calming the students, the statement provoked protesters to expand their demonstrations.

Police said 31 students were arrested outside the headquarters of a charitable foundation formerly controlled by Suharto. The building is about 500 meters from Habibie's home, which was heavily guarded.

At least five other demonstrations were staged in various spots in the capital, which was under a tight security clampdown because of Suharto's questioning.

The biggest protest Wednesday, December 9 was held outside the Jakarta police headquarters, where more than 1,000 students demanded the release of two fellow activists in detention. The two were arrested Tuesday and have been accused of briefly abducting of a plainclothes police officer last month.

Protesters tore down a fence near the headquarters' main gate. "Release our fellow students," they chanted.

Suharto's questioning also created a massive traffic jam in Jakarta as the military stationed dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers to close H.R. Rasuna Said street in Jakarta's main business district, where the Jakarta attorney's office as well as foreign embassies and office buildings are located.

And thousands of student protesters have staged continuing street protests in the Suropati park in central Jakarta, close to an old Dutch-style home where Suharto lives.

"Everything was made according to the laws. He made presidential decrees which were legal although they only benefit the car firm," said Andoyo, adding that if he were to judge the case, he would free Suharto as well.

Meanwhile, timber tycoon Bob Hasan, a golfing buddy of Suharto's, was also questioned for eight hours at the attorney general's office Wednesday in connection with his firm, the Nusamba group, which functions as the investment arm of the Suharto-controlled Dharmais Foundation.

Andoyo said the questioning process was very expensive, as the Habibie government had to mobilize many soldiers to guard the areas. Political analyst Eep Saefulloh Fatah of the University of Indonesia says that it is the armed forces which basically wants to protect Suharto from being prosecuted, adding that the military is split into two different groups over the issue.

According to Eep, Wiranto and Ghalib refuse to prosecute Suharto on the grounds that they used to be close aides to the aging strongman. Wiranto himself is a former adjutant to Suharto.

But the second group, headed by Lt. Gen. Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono, the military chief of staff for territorial affairs, supports the prosecution on the grounds that trying Suharto is a principal demand of the Indonesian public.

Amien says as long as Suharto is still a free man, the public will always experience security disturbances, suggesting that Suharto was behind more than a hundred highly-publicized, mysterious killings by "ninja" assassins, as well as riots that have taken place over the last two months in Indonesia.

Nuno Correia da Silva, a deputy of the nationalist Popular Party, called on the procurator general to issue an order against Suharto for "crimes of genocide, homicide and offences against the physical and moral well-being, of the people of East Timor."

East Timor, a former Portuguese territory, was annexed by Indonesia in 1976 a move that cost more than 200,000 lives and was never recognized by the United Nations.

The parliamentary deputy stressed that, in international law, Timor is still a Portuguese territory.

Correia da Silva added that the extradition order issued by a Spanish judge against Pinochet had opened "a new chapter in international rights, where there are no frontiers for the law and for the legitimacy of the rule of law."