Indonesia endured decades of bloodshed during former president Suharto's dictatorship. Yet, in an era when ruthless leaders are increasingly being held accountable, he has eased comfortably into old age without so much as a day in court.
The former dictator has been shielded since his May 1998 ouster by a graft-ridden legal system, government leaders who became wealthy during his 32-year rule and top military loyalists who want to clear his name.
Concerns about his mental and physical health too have kept him from facing trial: A series of strokes in recent years have left Suharto with permanent brain damage and impaired speech.
There is also a foreign hesitance to push justice in a fragile democracy that is a US ally in the fight against terrorism.
Between 300,000 and 800,000 alleged communist sympathizers were killed during Suharto's bloody rise to power from 1965 to 1968, a spasm of violence led by the Indonesian army and conservative Muslim groups.
His troops killed another 300,000 in military operations against independence movements in Papua, Aceh and East Timor, while hundreds of thousands of others were jailed without trial or disappeared.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, once a general serving under Suharto, is among a stream of high-profile government officials who have flocked to the hospital to visit the former strongman, who is suffering from multiple organ failure and a potentially deadly blood infection.
"As a human being, like other leaders, certainly he made mistakes and committed wrongdoing, but it would not hurt us to thank him and appreciate his achievements and services to the country," Yudhoyono said on Saturday.
In the past, concerns about instability in the vast and ethnically diverse archipelagic nation have been cited as reasons not to prosecute the retired five-star general.
Some believed that reopening wounds of the past "might yield a similar meltdown" to that of the former Yugoslav federation, which broke apart in a series of wars in the 1990s after the death of strongman Josip Broz Tito, said Mark Drumbl, director of the Transnational Law Institute at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
There also were fears his testimony would implicate multinational corporations and foreign governments "that were only too content to do business with him, support him, and make huge profits out of Indonesia's vast natural resources," he said.
Transparency International, a financial watchdog, estimates Suharto and his family amassed as much as US$35 billion during his reign, with his six children and inner circle becoming fabulously wealthy running state enterprises.
Efforts to recover the money have failed, and only one civil case is pending.
Yudhoyono sent the attorney general to the hospital this week to offer the family an out-of-court settlement for a US$1.5 billion suit, seeking to avoid a potentially embarrassing public trial. Defense lawyers rejected the proposal, denying accusations of wrongdoing.
Only one member of Suharto's family has ever served time in jail -- his youngest son, Tommy -- for ordering the murder of a Supreme Court judge who had convicted him of graft.
He was released in 2006 after spending just one-third of his 15-year sentence in a private air-conditioned cell.
Some critics say Indonesia's judicial system is so crippled by corruption that an international tribunal is needed to address past atrocities.
"If some Suharto family member needs to buy off a judge ... that's easy for them to do," said William Liddle, an Indonesia expert at Ohio State University. "Virtually all court decisions in this country are bought."
There is enough evidence against Suharto to try him under international law for crimes against humanity and genocide, said Richard Tanter, a professor of international relations and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic died in UN custody while on trial for war crimes and genocide; Chile's General Augusto Pinochet was facing human rights abuse allegations when he died at age 91; proceedings are under way against Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor; and Cambodia is prosecuting Khmer Rouge leaders for the killing fields.
But previous calls that Suharto be tried for graft and rights abuses have all but died away in the wake of his illness, with even his fiercest critics in the predominantly Muslim country saying this is the time to forgive.
"The idea of pursuing old, sick men is unattractive, but the basic deterrence function of such prosecutions largely outweighs" any drawbacks, Tanter countered. "For the ghosts of all the slaughtered and tortured, I'd like to see justice."
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
RSS