David Watts, Solo – The absent President Suharto of Indonesia suffered a double political blow yesterday when an important Muslim leader and a group of retired generals came out against his continuation in office.
Amien Rais, whom many see as a potential leader of the country, called on the army to end its support for the President. His public declaration is an important departure because he has been in close touch with the army leadership about the country's political future over the past few months.
His particular contact has been President Suharto's son-in-law, General Prabowo, who commands the key strategic troops. Privately General Prabowo has been urging the moderate leader of the 28 million Muslims who make up the Muhammadiyah movement to allow time for the"father of the nation" to reachhis own conclusions about whether or when he should leave office.
Clearly he believes the time has come for all parties to take a stand to prevent a collapse of national order.
It was not clear from yesterday's statement whether Mr Rais had coordinated his announcement with the army leadership, but senior officers, although they are handpicked by the President, will be aware that the army's reputation will suffer grievously if violent deaths continue at the present rate.
Mr Rais told cheering supporters in Jakarta that the Suharto regime was the most corrupt in the universe. Thousands of his members then chanted "People power, people power." Taking their cue from the newly active People's Assembly, 39 retired generals and politicians said that the body should repudiate the President's rubberstamp election that took place in March. The protest was led by Ali Sadikin, a retired three-star general, who was prominent in the Suharto Government in the 1970s. Issuing a statement, with a petition signed by the 39 leading figures, he said that for too long the Government had been using state money for personal interests.
Speaking in Cairo, where he is attending the Group of 15 economic summit, President Suharto said that his people must accept painful sacrifices to help to contain the fallout from the Asian financial crisis. He warned other leaders that the crisis could spill over into other parts of the world: "We are convinced there is a dire need to intensify international cooperation if the Asian crisis is to be overcome and if its impact is to be mitigated."
In Solo, central Java, where at least four people died last Friday, tensions are high. The area has been a centre of radicalism ever since the Indonesian independence movement began in the early 1920s. The Suharto family roots and the grave of the President's wife, Tien, are close by. The human price of the unrest is apparent at the central hospital. Up to 400 people were injured in the violence at one of the city's largest universities. Many of them are still in hospital.
Between wards packed with the injured, two students have laid out mats in the spotless, white-tiled corridor where they keep a 24-hour vigil: the army still has a reputation for removing evidence from the scenes of its clashes with the public. A young Catholic boy said: "The place is crawling with intelligence agents. We are here to make sure that they do not kidnap any of the wounded."
Inside a ward one young man stares mindlessly at the ceiling, his pupils dilated while bandages hide a severe head wound. He squeezes a pillow between his knees for comfort, but it is not clear whether he is registering anything else.
Diagonally across from him a young farmer sits bolt upright on his bed, a bandage across his left eye, which he will most likely lose after it was struck by a plastic bullet. At each bedside is a rush mat for family members who, like the students, keep watch over their loved ones. But they also have to worry about the cost of care. The Government gives no financial assistance to the already-poor families.
Nobody is sure how many were killed last Friday, but it is clear that many of the victims were innocent passers-by, peasants returning home from work in the nearby fields. Witnesses said that they saw troops shoot two students who were lying on the ground, but because the army removes bodies promptly from the scene of such actions, that is impossible to confirm.
Although the army is supposed to give warning, calling on protesters to disperse before using force, Mohamed Taufik, a local member of parliament for the opposition United Development Party, said that there was no warning and the soldiers provoked the students by firing teargas at them.
"The soldiers were drunk... Mr Taufik said. "They were red in the face and they were acting crazy. After the students fell down, they were kicking them and shouting 'you must die, you must die'.,"