Vaudine England, Jakarta – The discredited former special forces commander, Prabowo Subianto, has announced in Jakarta that his almost two-year exile in Jordan is over and that he is transferring his commercial activities back to Indonesia.

Mr Prabowo is a controversial figure due to his as-yet unexplained role in the deadly riots and manoeuvring which brought down President Suharto, his father-in-law, in May 1998. He has visited Jakarta occasionally but is now no longer avoiding the limelight.

"Disaffected armed forces personnel, both active and retired, could be behind political and social unrest in the country," he said at his first press conference in Jakarta in two years.

"Anybody in this country is capable of fomenting unrest," he said, adding that not only the military has the power and means to do so. The possibility of foreign intelligence groups being involved also could not be ruled out, he said. Just as provocative were his comments about protests by students yesterday against the slow pace of investigations into the corruption of Suharto. "We should all be fair ... everybody has his merits and demerits. We should respect a leader of this nation and his good deeds," he said.

Mr Prabowo once headed the Kopassus special forces, but was sacked from the military in 1998 after troops under his command kidnapped and tortured anti-Suharto activists. He was also accused of inciting the 1998 riots that helped topple Suharto and of trying to topple his successor, president Bacharuddin Habibie.

The former armed forces chief, General Wiranto, triumphed over Mr Prabowo in the power struggle of two years ago, but General Wiranto is now retired from the military and suspended from cabinet due to claims of rights abuses arising from his troops' behaviour in East Timor.

In April, reports emerged that Mr Prabowo was visiting Indonesia, and that he had found time to meet his "friend" Amien Rais, the chairman of parliament. Also present were two radical Islamic leaders. Mr Prabowo so far has disclaimed political ambitions.

Indicative of how divisive his return might be was the exchange of views in Asiaweek magazine after a recent cover story on Mr Prabowo, which many reformist and human rights figures regarded as overly favourable to him.

"People still wonder who was responsible for the riots: they could not have happened on such a vast scale without a 'mastermind'," wrote Jesuit priest Sandyawan Sumardi, a member of the joint fact-finding team which aimed to find culprits for the May 1998 events.

In reply, the editors of Asiaweek said their research "does not eliminate the possibility which Sandyawan suggests: that Prabowo could have used his personal links with soldiers for a certain end during the riots. But up to this point, we have found no evidence or witnesses to prove that he indeed did so."