Gen. Benny dies, laid to rest<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post<\/p>\n
A true intelligence officer to the end, L.B. Moerdani left this
\nworld discreetly in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and a few
\nhours later, one of the most feared and respected generals was
\nburied at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Gen. (ret) Leonardus Benyamin \"Benny\" Moerdani, former Armed
\nForces (ABRI) chief, passed away at 1:15 a.m. Sunday and was
\nburied at the cemetery in South Jakarta in a military ceremony
\nled by Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto
\nearly Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Many of his former colleagues, including former state oil
\ncompany Pertamina's president director Maj. Gen. (ret) A.M. Ramly
\nand former battalion doctor and East Nusa Tenggara governor Maj.
\nGen (ret) Ben Mboy, also attended the ceremony. Benny, 71, is
\nsurvived by his wife, one daughter and five grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Benny was admitted to the Army's Gatot Subroto hospital in
\nJuly due to lung problems after a stroke. His health deteriorated
\nlast week and he went into a coma on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Early Sunday morning, Benny's body was taken to his residence
\non Jl. Hang Lekir, South Jakarta, where a religious ceremony was
\nheld.<\/p>\n
Former president Soeharto visited the family home to pay his
\nrespects to Benny, who gained the trust of the president's inner
\ncircle's because of the his ability in intelligence-gathering.<\/p>\n
Benny's body was later taken to the Army's headquarters in
\nCentral Jakarta, where Army leaders paid tribute in a modest
\nceremony led by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu.<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her husband Taufik Kiemas
\nalso went to the Army headquarters to express condolences.<\/p>\n
Former president Abdurrahman \"Gus Dur\" Wahid and his wife
\nSinta Nuriyah also attended along with several senior Army
\nofficers including Gen. (ret) Wiranto. Soeharto's daughter Siti
\n\"Titiek\" Hediyanti Hariyadi paid her last respects as well.<\/p>\n
A number of government officials, including head of the
\nNational Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Kwik Kian Gie,
\nMinister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and Jakarta Governor
\nSutiyoso, were also present at the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Born in Cepu, Central Java on Oct. 2, 1932, Benny joined the
\nmilitary soon after the war against the Dutch from 1945 to 1949.<\/p>\n
Most of his military career was spent in combat and
\nintelligence roles, making him the most influential figure among
\nsoldiers of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus). He was involved
\nin a major operation for the control of West Irian Jaya (now
\nknown as Papua) in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n
He also gained notoriety after he led a military operation to
\nfree hostages of a hijacked Garuda Indonesia aircraft in Bangkok
\nin 1981.<\/p>\n
Benny held ABRI's top post from 1983 to 1988 and it was under
\nhis tenure that the Army streamlined its military command at the
\nprovincial level from 13 to only nine. He also came up with idea
\nto set the mandatory retirement age of soldiers at 55 in a bid to
\nboost regeneration among soldiers.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia has lost a great man, a patriot who worked beyond
\nthe call of duty,\" Harry Tjan Silalahi, a senior researcher at
\nthe Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a
\nclose friend, recalled.<\/p>\n
Another confidante, Des Alwi, shared another memory when the
\ntwo were assigned by Soeharto to hold diplomatic negotiations
\nwith the Malaysian administration to restore ties between the two
\ncountries, which had been severed following the confrontation
\npolicy of former president Sukarno in 1960s.<\/p>\n
\"At that time, Benny was an intelligence officer whose rank
\nwas only a major while I was a liaison officer at the Indonesian
\nEmbassy in Malaysia. But since he had to meet with Malaysian
\nprime minister Tun Abdul Razak, the Armed Forces headquarters
\nappointed him as a Colonel,\" he recalled.<\/p>\n
Benny, however, will not likely be held up as hero by human
\nrights activists, who claim that he had a hand in a series of
\nbloody episodes, from the invasion of East Timor in 1975 to the
\nTanjung Priok shooting in 1984.<\/p>",
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