Indonesians bury controversial Suharto

updated 12:01 a.m. ET Jan. 28, 2008

SOLO, Indonesia - Former Indonesian dictator Suharto, a U.S. Cold War ally whose military regime killed hundreds of thousands of left-wing opponents, was buried Monday at a state funeral with full military honors as tens of thousands mourned.

Throngs of Indonesians lined the streets to watch a motorcade carry his body to the family mausoleum. Many sobbed and called out the name of the man whose three-decade rule, though harsh, brought stability and economic growth to Indonesia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono led a ceremony televised live across the nation from the mausoleum near Suharto’s hometown of Solo, some 250 miles east of the capital. After a reading of Suharto’s military accomplishments, a shot was fired in his honor and Yudhoyono offered a salute.

“We offer his body and his deeds to the motherland,” Yudhoyono said. “His service is an example to us.”

Week of national mourning
Islamic prayers were said and as his body was lowered, mourners tossed flower petals into his grave. A military band played a dirge.

Suharto died Sunday of multiple organ failure after more than three weeks on life support at a Jakarta hospital. He was 86.

Yudhoyono had already declared a week of national mourning and called on Indonesians “to pay their last respects to one of Indonesia’s best sons.”

“He was a great man,” said Sumartini, 65, who came from a nearby village with her four children to watch the funeral procession. “His death touched us deeply.”

Totalitarian dominance
Suharto loyalists, who run the courts, called for forgiveness and a clearing of his name. But survivors want those responsible for atrocities to be held accountable.

“I cannot understand why I have to forgive Suharto because he never admitted his mistakes,” said Putu Oka Sukanta, who spent a decade in prison because of his left-wing sympathies.

Suharto was finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998 at the peak of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

His departure from office opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people, and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable Jakarta villa.

Suharto ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian archipelago that stretches across more than 3,000 miles.

Since being forced from power, Suharto had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech. Poor health — and continuing corruption, critics charge — kept him from court after he was chased from office.

Up to 1 million killed in purge
The bulk of killings occurred in 1965-1966 when alleged communists were rounded up and slain during his rise to power. Estimates for the death toll range from a government figure of 78,000 to 1 million cited by U.S. historians Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr, who have published books on Indonesia’s history.

During Indonesia’s 1975-1999 occupation of East Timor, up to 183,000 people died due to killings, disappearances, hunger and illness, according to an East Timorese commission sanctioned by the United Nations. Similar abuses left more than 100,000 dead in West Papua, according a local human rights group. Another 15,000 died during a 29-year separatist rebellion in Aceh province.

Suharto’s five successors as head of state all vowed to end the graft that took root under his regime, yet it remains endemic at all levels of Indonesian society.

With the court system paralyzed by corruption, the country has not confronted its bloody past. Rather than put on trial those accused of mass murder and multibillion-dollar theft, some members of the political elite consistently called for charges against Suharto to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.

Some noted Suharto also oversaw decades of economic expansion that made Indonesia the envy of the developing world. Today, nearly a quarter of Indonesians live in poverty, and many long for the Suharto era’s stability, when fuel and rice were affordable.

But critics say Suharto squandered Indonesia’s vast natural resources of oil, timber and gold, siphoning the nation’s wealth to benefit his cronies, foreign corporations and family like a mafia don.

‘Iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator’
Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed “Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country.”

“When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century,” Winters said.

Those who profited from Suharto’s rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an “iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator,” he was able to stay in his native country.

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