Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Not long ago feted as South-East Asia's greatest leader, Indonesia's former president Soeharto knows little about the dramatic changes taking place in the country he ruled for 32 years.

His family do not allow Mr Soeharto, who turned 79 this week, to read newspapers or watch television news, apparently for fear his blood pressure will rise.

Guarded by 100 heavily armed soldiers, Mr Soeharto spends his days in the same sprawling colonial house in an up-market Jakarta suburb where he has lived for decades, watching cartoons or Discovery channel.

Under house arrest pending corruption charges being laid against him and with people needing a government permit to visit, Mr Soeharto looks a lonely and forlorn figure, according to the few visitors who go to the house.

"When I came there Soeharto was sitting all alone and I said happy birthday to him," said Mr Juan Felix Tampubolon, one of his lawyers.

Only a parrot perched in a cage near the Soeharto dining room now recognises his leadership. It screeches "selamat pagi Bapak Presiden" (good morning, Mr President).

Despite slurred speech caused by a mild stroke and a claimed loss of memory that is hampering government investigations, Mr Soeharto must still be able to hear chants of "kill Soeharto, hang Soeharto" that often erupt on the other side of barricades and barbed wire in Jalan Cendana, the street he has made famous.

But the soldiers, led by officers Mr Soeharto personally trusts, have orders to shoot if necessary, to protect the man Time magazine accused of looting the country of $US15 billion.

A few times every week student groups gather near Cendana to demand he be jailed for corruption and nepotism. Often the demonstrations erupt into violence.

The Attorney-General, Mr Marzuki Darusman, who put Mr Soeharto under house arrest a fortnight ago, has said he will lay charges against him by August 10.

Mr Soeharto's lawyers argue he is unfit to answer questions in once-weekly grilling sessions by government prosecutors. They hint that the stroke damaged his brain.

But prosecutors are not convinced. They say he tries every ploy possible to frustrate the investigations, such as insisting on answering questions in Javanese, rather than the modern Indonesian language he did much to instil around the multi-ethnic nation.

His lawyers say this is a sign of his infirmity. Mr Soeharto insists he does not have a cent stashed in foreign banks and claims his wealth came from thriftiness with his presidential salary and rent from two houses he owns.

However, on Tuesday a court dismissed a multi-billion dollar libel suit he had brought against Time, a humiliating blow to the man who presided over one of the world's most corrupt judicial systems.

Mr Soeharto insists under interrogation that his actions were in the country's best interests. He told investigators, for example, that he had awarded a lucrative national car project to his youngest son, Tommy, because no-one else applied.

A former governor of Jakarta, Mr Ali Sadikin, said Mr Soeharto's supporters were trying to sabotage the Attorney-General's investigations. "They are afraid they will be implicated and their wrongdoings uncovered," he said.

Mr Sadikin said 60 per cent of MPs and Jakarta's businesspeople were part of Mr Soeharto's so-called New Order. "Many of them are not much better than bandits."

Government lawyers complain that Mr Soeharto's high-powered and expensive team of lawyers is using the courts to frustrate every step taken the Attorney-General takes. Deep suspicions remain among Jakarta's elite that a group of rich and powerful people close to Mr Soeharto, including his six children, are fomenting trouble across the country.

The Minister for Defence, Mr Juwono Sudarsono, said last week that a series of riots and disturbances plaguing Indonesia were linked to Mr Soeharto's supporters.

Until then, president Abdurrahman Wahid, government investigators and police had referred vaguely to unnamed provocateurs when talking about the outbreaks of violence.

[On June 9, Agence France Presse reported that prosecutors had extended a house arrest order imposed on Suharto by 30 more days. Suharto has been barred from leaving Jakarta since April 12 and was first placed under house arrest on May 29. The order was handed to and signed by Suharto's chief lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon. Tampubolon said he thought the extension was unnecessary because Suharto had been cooperative and had not tried to go anywhere. "We don't see the urgency," he said - James Balowski.]