The New York Times-20080128-Indonesians Mourn Suharto- Despite the Dictator-s Brutal Legacy

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Indonesians Mourn Suharto, Despite the Dictator's Brutal Legacy

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-- Former President Suharto was buried in a family tomb on a sacred hillside here on Monday, one day after his death in Jakarta, embraced by many as a great leader despite his reign as a brutal and corrupt dictator.

In a ceremony that mixed Javanese, Islamic and military traditions, his body was placed in a marble tomb in a family mausoleum, beside that of his wife, Siti Hartinah, who died in 1996, and those of three other relatives.

President Susilo Bambamb Yudhoyono and other leading figures attended the funeral, arriving here in central Java in a fleet of military aircraft.

Television stations maintained live coverage through much of Sunday afternoon and Monday, filling the pauses with sentimental documentaries that could have been filmed during his 32 years of strongman rule, one of them titled, Farewell, Great General.

Surging, shouting crowds had mobbed the ambulance that drove his body from a hospital to his home in central Jakarta, where he had lived since being ousted from power 10 years ago.

Mr. Yudhoyono, who like many of the country's current leaders owes his career to Suharto, declared a week of mourning and addressed the nation in something close to a whisper.

I invite all the people of Indonesia to pray that the deceased's good deeds and dedication to the nation may be accepted by God the almighty, he said. Suharto has done a great service to the nation.

He then joined mourners at Mr. Suharto's home in central Jakarta, where the president was shown on television praying at the coffin, which was draped with a white sheet.

Mr. Suharto, 86, died Sunday after three weeks in the intensive care ward of a Jakarta hospital, where doctors said he had been suffering from multiple organ failure.

His long illness was the occasion for a national debate over his legacy and over calls to drop corruption charges against him, but the negative voices were mostly quiet on Sunday.

Mr. Suharto was ousted by a popular uprising in May 1998. He had brought his nation from poverty to development, but he was one of the most brutal dictators of his time, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. The United Nations also lists him as the most corrupt leader of his time.

When his death was announced, as if fulfilling the predictions of mystics, wind and heavy rain lashed the hillside where he was to be buried.

The tears of Indonesia are raining on me, said an Indonesian photographer by telephone from the hillside.

Soon after that a small earthquake struck near Yogyakarta, close to Mr. Suharto's birthplace.

The emotional heart of the day was the appearance at the hospital of Mr. Suharto's oldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, at a news conference where his death was announced.

Mr. Suharto's chief doctor, Marjo Subiandono, spoke first, opening with a phrase from the Koran, To God we belong, and to God we shall return. He gave the time of death as 1:10 p.m.

Mr. Suharto's daughter, known by her nickname, Tutut, wearing a black Muslim head scarf in mourning, took a microphone, leaned forward and coughed back tears before speaking.

In the name of the family, I ask forgiveness for any mistakes my father made, she said in a tiny, barely audible voice. I hope his spirit is accepted by God. Her pale face was a blur in the flashes of the cameras.

I cannot bear the sadness, she said, putting down the microphone.

Mr. Suharto's six children are among the wealthiest people in Indonesia, accused along with their father of enriching themselves through graft and manipulated business deals.

At one point during Mr. Suharto's illness, the attorney general was reported to have offered to settle the only outstanding corruption case against Mr. Suharto. But there were conflicting reports over whether the idea was initiated by the government or by his family.

The civil case, which seeks $1.4 billion in compensation for money said to have been stolen through a charitable foundation, could proceed against his heirs, said legal scholars quoted in the news media.

Mr. Suharto had avoided trial on corruption charges because his lawyers argued that a series of strokes had weakened his mind too much for him to participate.

He had spent the past decade living quietly, sidelined in the vigorous democracy that almost immediately filled the vacuum left after his downfall.

The decline of his health revived his place in the public eye and reinvigorated debate over his legacy.

Indonesia was transfixed by sometimes lurid daily reports of his fluctuating health -- one day an amazing recovery, the next day very critical. As recently as Saturday, doctors were talking about the possibility of moving him from the intensive care unit and beginning rehabilitation exercises.

Alongside the coverage of high-ranking officials praying at his coffin on Sunday, television documentaries presented Mr. Suharto to the nation in a way that he had not been seen for a decade.

There he was, on one station after another, as he used to be: visiting farmers, catching a fish, playing golf, meeting foreign leaders, receiving applause -- a benevolently smiling father figure.

[Illustration]PHOTO: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, center, was among those paying respects on Sunday at the open coffin of the former President Suharto, who died in a hospital in Jakarta. Suharto has done a great service to the nation, Mr. Yudhoyono said. Mr. Suharto, who died from multiple organ failure after spending three weeks in the intensive care ward, will be buried in a family mausoleum on a hillside near Yogyakarta, on Java island. (PHOTOGRAPH BY DUDI ANUNG/PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, VIA BLOOMBERG NEWS)