An addendum to an obituary(which I haven't been able to post yet.)
Suharto will be buried (stored?) in the Argosari Mausoleum in Surakarta (Solo), next to his wife Tien who arranged for it to be built. An outer and lower ring is allocated for children and grandchildren and the upper level is for the royal family of Solo to which Madame Tien claimed some familial connection.
What intrigues me is that it is reported that there are 48 caretakers of the Cendana Clan’s bit of the plot. Is the family scared of body-snatchers or vampire hunters? Maybe there is a belief in numerology, the belief in the occult influence of numbers upon the life of an individual which
Christians would say is both unbiblical and an offense to God.
So is 48 a Javanese thing?
Not that I care, but 48 caretakers does seem excessive. Wouldn’t an unmarked grave be more appropriate? It would certainly go some way to appeasing the souls of the many poor folk massacred during his regime. The genocide of supposed communists, i.e. those who had pissed off the military and the Muslim organisation
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in 1965/66,
Petrus - the killing of petty criminals in 1983,
the Tanjung Priok massacre in September 1984, the
raid on the Indonesian Democratic Party in 1996, the
disappearances and shootings of students at Trisakti and Atma Jaya universities and, of course, the victims of the
May riots in 1998 which immediately preceded Suharto’s abdication are not easily forgotten.
One should also remember the victims in East Timor, now independent Timor Leste, and in Aceh and in West Papua, both provinces with supposed special autonomy.
These injustices have now been highlighted, but have yet to be resolved. Maybe that's because only 10 years ago what is written here would have been labelled as Communist propaganda and those responsible are still very active in public life.
The National Human Rights Commission (
Komnas HAM) say that there are at least 3 prominent ex-generals who could (should?) be held accountable for the killings in the late 90’s.
SBY was the chief of staff of the Kodam Jaya (regional military command) at the time of should be held accountable for the attack on the Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters on Jalan Diponegoro on July 27, 1996. (Komnas also said that SBY is responsible for the policy of implementing martial law in Aceh.)
Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso - later and until late last year Governor of Jakarta - was the military commander for Jakarta under SBY at the time.
He was quoted by the Antara news agency as warning that the military was in no mood to tolerate new disturbances.
"We have issued orders to shoot if there are any attempts to disturb order." he said. And there was General Wiranto who was armed forces chief throughout the latter stages of Suharto's despotic regime. Wiranto must also be held responsible for the extra-judicial killings in East Timor, which was under martial law at the time.
All three ex-generals will be presidential candidates in 2009.
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