Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid disclosed yesterday that a few days before former president Soeharto resigned on May 21, 1998, he had instructed the withdrawal of Rp70 trillion (US$8 billion) from foreign banks.

Wahid, speaking at a gathering of more than 1,000 religious leaders in Malang, East Java, said he had received the information from one of Soeharto's main enemies. "Thank God, yesterday afternoon, one of the men most hated by Soeharto reported to me that days before quitting office, Pak Harto instructed the withdrawal of money from abroad, amounting to Rp70 trillion," he said.

Wahid said if authorities could get the money back from Soeharto, they would use it to replace counterfeit rupiah banknotes, which have flooded the country since the fall of Soeharto. "We [would] use the money to replace faked banknotes so as not to shake the market."

Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, said his informer had told him the names of the ringleaders behind the massive counterfeit operation. But the president did not make these names available to the public.