Soeharto visits Nasution in hospital

Antara

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto visited Gen. (ret) Abdul Haris Nasution at Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital yesterday.

The President was accompanied by Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono and his daughter Titiek Prabowo. Nasution lay in bed (right) with his wife, Johana Sunarti, standing at his bedside during the President's visit.

Nasution, an army chief under first president Sukarno and now a government critic, has been treated for a prostate problem since Monday, according to Antara.

This is the second time this year Nasution has been hospitalized. Last month, he spent several days in the same hospital suffering from the same problem.

Last February, Nasution suffered an inflammation of the prostate, and rheumatism, which forced him to use a walking stick.

A hospital public relations officer declined to comment when The Jakarta Post asked about Nasution's condition and why he was being treated.

The presidential medical team is caring for the 78-year-old Nasution.

He is known as one of the founders of the modern Indonesian Army. He has also been dubbed a military intellectual, and has written a number of books, including the two-volume Guerrilla Guidelines, and Indonesia's Independence Struggle.

He was speaker of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly from 1968 to 1972.

During the visit President Soeharto wished Nasution well and encouraged him to recover quickly. (12)