Ex-army colonel and communist prisoner dies of lung failure

Ex-army colonel and communist prisoner dies of lung failure

Associated Press, Jakarta

Abdul Latief, a former army colonel who spent 33 years in jail for alleged links with a communist coup attempt in 1965, died on Wednesday of lung failure, a relative said.

Latief, 79, passed away at a local hospital in Tangerang west of Jakarta, where he was treated in the past two months, said Hartono, one of Latief's relatives who took care of him since his release from jail six years ago.

Hartono, who uses one name like many Indonesians, said Latief had also suffered other health problems including two strokes while in prison.

Latief was arrested and sentenced to life in 1966 for his connection with the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) which was blamed for a coup attempt against Indonesia's founding President Sukarno in September 1965.

Six army generals were kidnapped and murdered in the alleged coup, which set the stage for Soeharto, then an army major general, to seize power. Former president Soeharto also put Sukarno under house arrest, blaming him for allowing communism to flourish. Sukarno died during house arrest.

After Soeharto's downfall in 1998, President B.J. Habibie released Latief and other political prisoners in 1999.

Communist involvement in the killings of the generals or even the existence of a coup have never been proven. But in the reprisal ordered by Soeharto hundreds of thousands of accused communists were massacred in the late 1960s.

Latief is survived by his wife and three children. He was buried on Wednesday.