Peter Hartcher – Indonesia's former president, Mr Soeharto, has deliberately helped provoke recent violence and bloodshed as a political tactic, one of Indonesia's key Islamic leaders has alleged.

The presidential candidate Dr Amien Rais said he suspected Mr Soeharto of destabilising parts of Indonesia as a way of delaying or disrupting the national election due on June 7.

And he claimed that Mr Soeharto and the ruling Golkar party were using large sums of money to neutralise political opponents and to bribe voters.

Dr Amien said that parts of the Army seemed to be working with Mr Soeharto, and he has called for the resignation of the commander of the armed forces and the former Soeharto adjutant, General Wiranto.

"Most probably Soeharto is involved in destabilising the political situation and trying to delay the election. I believe he is involved in the destabilisation in Ambon, but I cannot prove it," he told The Australian Financial Review. "Part of the Army is working with him, but not the whole army."

More than 200 people have died in clashes between Muslims and Christians on the island of Ambon in recent months.

"If the authorities really wanted to arrest the provocateurs, it's not difficult at all. Ambon is a small town; it's easy to find out who the provocateurs are."

Across the archipelago, violence and mass unrest have broken out with increased frequency since Soeharto resigned on May 2 last year amid economic crisis.

More than 1,000 people have died. Fresh violence between Muslims and Christians on the eastern islands broke out over the Easter weekend, with an estimated 54 people killed.

"Soeharto is defending himself, defending the economic imperium of his children," said Dr Amien, who emerged as the leader of the reform movement in the final years of Mr Soeharto's rule.

He chaired the 28 million-member moderate Islamic group Muhammadiyah until stepping aside to campaign for the presidency. He is regarded as one of the three leading contenders.

There has been a great deal of speculation in Indonesia about who might be provoking or masterminding the unrest, and much has centred on Mr Soeharto. Dr Amien Rais is, however, the first national figure to implicate him on the record.

Dr Amien said in an interview at his home city of Yogjakarta on the island of Java that Mr Soeharto faced the likelihood of a trial under a reformist government.

"He still has a lot of networks, a lot of allies and friends in the armed forces and the bureaucracy; a lot of people believe their fate depends on him and if he collapses, if he goes on trial, there will be lot more political and economic fallout.

"We have to hit him, again and again, harder and more often, until we deliver the coup de grace, and then we can begin to build a democratic Indonesia.

"The status quo forces will do anything to delay or disrupt the election. They are afraid of the election."

When Mr Soeharto resigned, he transferred power to his deputy, Professor B.J. Habibie, who continues to lead the ruling party created by Mr Soeharto's New Order regime, Golkar.

The Habibie administration has guaranteed the physical safety of Mr Soeharto and has refused to convene an independent inquiry into alleged corruption by the former president. Dr Amien has said publicly that one of Mr Soeharto's daughters phoned him last November with an offer of multiple pay-offs of 11 billion rupiah each – about $2 million – in an apparent effort to blunt his campaign against Mr Soeharto and his family.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and the Pacific, Mr Stanley Roth, told the American Senate last month that continuing violence threatened the forthcoming elections, the freest since 1955.

"The armed forces' inability to quell this violence, and the lack of accountability for past actions, have all but destroyed the notion of ABRI [the armed forces] as the protector of the people," Mr Roth said.

"Unless this violence can be brought under control, Indonesia's ability to carry out free and fair elections will be put at risk. More fundamentally, the violence threatens the very fabric of Indonesia's multi-ethnic society." Dr Amien Rais said: "I do not believe that the army as an institution wants to postpone the election. There is only one alternative to the election, and that is chaos. I don't think the army could have a consensus to disrupt the election because the consequences would be very deep, and the army would not be able to overcome such chaos. So I do not think it is in ABRI's interests."

However, Dr Amien said that the commander of ABRI and concurrently Minister for Defence, General Wiranto, "does not represent the interests of the amed forces; he represents the interests of the Soeharto family".

"I think that Soeharto will want to try to engineer Wiranto as Golkar's candidate for the presidency," Dr Amien said. Golkar has so far nominated five possible candidates for the presidency, including the current President, B.J.Habibie, and General Wiranto. "Wiranto worked as Soeharto's adjutant, he has taken very good care of Soeharto and his family right up to this very day, and I hear that one of Wiranto's children is soon to marry into the Soeharto family. I think Soeharto trusts him completely. I think Wiranto cannot distinguish between his loyalty to Soeharto and his loyalty to the people."

Mr Soeharto has threatened to sue Dr Amien and other critics for their persistent claims that he is guilty of economic crimes, political crimes and crimes against humanity during his 32-year rule.

A Soeharto lawyer, Mr Muhammad Assegaf, said: "Soeharto is sick of being defamed by these people. He feels his good name is being dragged through the mud, and that the only thing left to do is to sue them."