Gus Dur says he tried to notify Wiranto

Gus Dur says he tried to notify Wiranto

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid insisted on Thursday
that he tried to inform Gen. Wiranto of the decision to suspend
him from his Cabinet post, but the former military chief was
asleep.

Speaking in a meeting with senior members of the Indonesian
Journalists Association (PWI) at the State Palace, Abdurrahman
said he telephoned Wiranto late on Sunday night after reversing
his earlier announced decision to allow him to retain his duties
as coordinating minister for political affairs and security.

He said a member of the general's staff said Wiranto had gone
to bed.

Abdurrahman did not say if he personally placed the call, or
if he thought it unusual for a minister's staff member to reject
a call from the president.

According to the President, he planned to contact the general
again but forgot.

He said he only remembered shortly before leaving to install
Minister of Home Affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Surjadi Soedirdja as
Wiranto's temporary replacement on Monday morning.

"There were so many visitors ... Then I had to attend to
business as usual and before I realized it, the time had come for
me to go to the ceremony for the temporary appointment of
Surjadi."

Abdurrahman's decision to suspend Wiranto shocked many because
on Sunday morning he announced that he would keep Wiranto in his
ministerial post, pending a formal investigation into his alleged
responsibility for the violence in East Timor last year.

"There was no intention to belittle or to regard Wiranto as
unimportant," he told the meeting, which was also attended by
members of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ).

Abdurrahman said that he and Vice President Megawati
Soekarnoputri would be among the first of Wiranto's friends to
congratulate the general if he was eventually cleared of the
allegations against him.

"I've personally told Pak Wiranto that if the court finds him
innocent, then he must hold a slametan (thanksgiving ceremony),
and I want to be invited with Mbak Mega," the President remarked.
(prb)