Suharto ordered to stand trial

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, AUG. 23. A top Indonesian judge today said that the former dictator, Gen. Suharto, will face trial from August 31 on corruption charges, despite reports of ill-health.

``Suharto must face the trial. I have said that I will order the prosecutors to make him come to the trial,'' Mr. Lalu Mariyun, chief judge of the South Jakarta Court, announced at a press conference.

Asked what would happen if Gen. Suharto, who is said to be too sick, failed to appear for the trial, Mr. Mariyun said: ``Let's just see what the reasons are. If it happens, we will go back to the code of conduct. Hopefully all will come.''

The Attorney-General, Mr. Marzuki Darusman, had formally charged Gen. Suharto with the misuse of $ 550 millions from seven charitable organisations while he ruled the country with an iron hand. Gen. Suharto's trial, which will take place in the auditorium of the Department of Agriculture in South Jakarta, has been chosen for the large space that it offers.

Gen. Suharo (79), who was forced to quit office in 1998, remains the focus of attention in Indonesia in terms of an ``unresolved issue'' from the country's autocratic past.

The trial would satisfy many in Indonesia that justice is at last being done in a country where democracy began to be practised for the first time in some 50 years only in 1999.

Some 130 witnesses will be produced by the prosecution in the trial, which comes after several allegations of corruption not just against the former General, but his close family members.

The choice of the auditorium, which can reportedly accommodate up to 400 persons, will allow public participation in a trial which has been demanded by ordinary Indonesians for a considerable length of time.

The President, Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, has announced that he would pardon Gen. Suharto if the one-time dictator, who held absolute power for 32 years, was convicted by a court of law.

It is not known that kind of public reception would be accorded to this public announcement by Mr. Wahid given the fact that there is a solid body of opinion in the country which wants Gen. Suharto to be punished.

Gen. Suharto's lawyers have insisted that he is too sick to stand trial. One of them was quoted as saying in Jakarta today that under the law, Gen. Suharto could refuse to attend if he was too ill.

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Section  : International
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