Jakarta – General Andi Muhammad Jusuf, a former Indonesian army chief who played a pivotal role in the rise to power of former dictator Suharto nearly four decades ago, has died. He was 76.

Gen Andi, a retired four-star general, died late on Wednesday from kidney failure and other complications in the central city of Makassar, his doctor, Dr John Adam, said yesterday.

Gen Andi joined the Indonesian army in 1945 as the new state fought to prevent the return of Dutch colonisers after World War II.

He rose through the ranks and was eventually promoted to general. In 1966, he was involved in events that led to the ouster of then-President Sukarno and his replacement by Mr Suharto after mutinous junior officers assassinated six top generals.

In the chaos that followed the killings, Mr Suharto – who had inexplicably been left off the mutineers' hit list – assumed command of the armed forces, blaming communists and other leftists for the insurrection.

According to the dictatorship's version of history, on March 11, 1966, Mr Sukarno formally transferred power to Mr Suharto by signing an order which he handed to Gen Andi, the junta's representative who had visited him in the presidential palace.

Sukarno loyalists maintain that the original document – known by its Indonesian acronym as Supersemar – was simply an instruction to Mr Suharto to use the armed forces to maintain security and end the massacres.

Mr Sukarno's bodyguards said that Gen Andi and two other generals forced the country's founding president to sign the paper at gunpoint.

Historians have never been able to ascertain the truth because the original document – which ushered in 32 years of dictatorship – vanished immediately and was never seen again.

Gen Andi himself refused to comment on the whereabouts of the document.

After Mr Suharto assumed power, he launched a massive purge of the communist party in which up to 800,000 people died.

Gen Andi was buried yesterday at a cemetery in Makassar. He is survived by his wife, Elly Saelan Jusuf.