Prisoner R.S. Soetarto reunited with his family

JAKARTA (JP): Police Brig. Gen. Raden Soegeng Soetarto was reunited with his family yesterday, almost 30 years after he was convicted of being involved in the 1965 coup attempt blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party.

He, together with two other long-serving political prisoners linked to the coup, was freed from jail on Aug. 17. Illness kept him from taking advantage of the President's clemency until yesterday.

Dry-eyed family members saw the reunification as the starting point of their new life.

"I cannot shed tears though I feel so touched by my father's return," Dewi Wilutomo, Soetarto's second child, told The Jakarta Post at the St. Carolus Hospital where Soetarto was treated for depression since May last year.

Together with her mother Moesmariniwijati Soetarto, her eldest brother Waskito Adiribowo, her sister Retno Palapaningsih, Retno's husband Suryo Widagdo and Retno's son Rea Basworo, Dewi came to the hospital to take her father home.

Soetarto served his sentence at the Cipinang penitentiary with fellow political detainees Soebandrio and Omar Dhani. The latter walked free last week.

Soebandrio, 81, is a former foreign minister and Omar Dhani, 71, a former air force chief of staff.

The three men were originally sentenced to death for their parts in the attempted coup against then President Sukarno. President Soeharto commuted their sentences to life imprisonment in the early 1980s, reportedly on humanitarian grounds.

Soetarto left the hospital early in the morning. Close relatives and the hospital's nurses joined the procession which began at 6 a.m. with mass at the hospital's chapel. The service, dedicated to Soetarto's freedom, was held without him.

He was still in bed when his wife and his three children came to his room half an hour later. Soetarto had refused to get up when the duty nurse told him it was his last morning in the hospital.

"I am not supposed to leave this hospital until Sept. 3," he insisted, remembering his doctor's orders to return to the hospital for check up early next month.

He only agreed to leave the hospital after his son Waskito showed him the hospital's notice.

"My husband has been and is always an obedient person. He does everything his doctor tells him to do," his wife said.

She could hardly stop laughing when her husband demanded extra cigarettes in defiance of his doctor's warning. Soetarto is allowed six cigarettes a day.

Soetarto, known as a silent man, became talkative on his way home.

"Jakarta has developed a lot, hasn't it?" he queried his son Waskito, who was driving the car. "I don't think I could find my own way home," he added.

He also joked when he arrived home.

"I don't like that hospital. I don't want to return," he commented to the laughter of his family.

He also explained that his doctor ordered him to eat porridge, even though he felt he had had more than enough during his time in hospital.

"It is the doctor's order," he quipped. (imn)