Gen. Benny dies, laid to rest

Gen. Benny dies, laid to rest

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post

A true intelligence officer to the end, L.B. Moerdani left this
world discreetly in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and a few
hours later, one of the most feared and respected generals was
buried at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta.

Gen. (ret) Leonardus Benyamin "Benny" Moerdani, former Armed
Forces (ABRI) chief, passed away at 1:15 a.m. Sunday and was
buried at the cemetery in South Jakarta in a military ceremony
led by Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto
early Sunday afternoon.

Many of his former colleagues, including former state oil
company Pertamina's president director Maj. Gen. (ret) A.M. Ramly
and former battalion doctor and East Nusa Tenggara governor Maj.
Gen (ret) Ben Mboy, also attended the ceremony. Benny, 71, is
survived by his wife, one daughter and five grandchildren.

Benny was admitted to the Army's Gatot Subroto hospital in
July due to lung problems after a stroke. His health deteriorated
last week and he went into a coma on Saturday.

Early Sunday morning, Benny's body was taken to his residence
on Jl. Hang Lekir, South Jakarta, where a religious ceremony was
held.

Former president Soeharto visited the family home to pay his
respects to Benny, who gained the trust of the president's inner
circle's because of the his ability in intelligence-gathering.

Benny's body was later taken to the Army's headquarters in
Central Jakarta, where Army leaders paid tribute in a modest
ceremony led by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her husband Taufik Kiemas
also went to the Army headquarters to express condolences.

Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and his wife
Sinta Nuriyah also attended along with several senior Army
officers including Gen. (ret) Wiranto. Soeharto's daughter Siti
"Titiek" Hediyanti Hariyadi paid her last respects as well.

A number of government officials, including head of the
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Kwik Kian Gie,
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and Jakarta Governor
Sutiyoso, were also present at the ceremony.

Born in Cepu, Central Java on Oct. 2, 1932, Benny joined the
military soon after the war against the Dutch from 1945 to 1949.

Most of his military career was spent in combat and
intelligence roles, making him the most influential figure among
soldiers of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus). He was involved
in a major operation for the control of West Irian Jaya (now
known as Papua) in the early 1960s.

He also gained notoriety after he led a military operation to
free hostages of a hijacked Garuda Indonesia aircraft in Bangkok
in 1981.

Benny held ABRI's top post from 1983 to 1988 and it was under
his tenure that the Army streamlined its military command at the
provincial level from 13 to only nine. He also came up with idea
to set the mandatory retirement age of soldiers at 55 in a bid to
boost regeneration among soldiers.

"Indonesia has lost a great man, a patriot who worked beyond
the call of duty," Harry Tjan Silalahi, a senior researcher at
the Centre of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a
close friend, recalled.

Another confidante, Des Alwi, shared another memory when the
two were assigned by Soeharto to hold diplomatic negotiations
with the Malaysian administration to restore ties between the two
countries, which had been severed following the confrontation
policy of former president Sukarno in 1960s.

"At that time, Benny was an intelligence officer whose rank
was only a major while I was a liaison officer at the Indonesian
Embassy in Malaysia. But since he had to meet with Malaysian
prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, the Armed Forces headquarters
appointed him as a Colonel," he recalled.

Benny, however, will not likely be held up as hero by human
rights activists, who claim that he had a hand in a series of
bloody episodes, from the invasion of East Timor in 1975 to the
Tanjung Priok shooting in 1984.