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.