Soeharto's crime

When Attorney General Marzuki Darusman announced (The Jakarta Post, March 23, 2000) that Soeharto (78) is fit enough to be questioned, anyone who has witnessed events since 1965 in Indonesia is aghast to hear Mr. Darusman talk strictly about money. Soeharto's most horrendous crime was not that he stole millions of dollars from the Indonesian people -- together with his wife and children and a horde of corrupt cronies. Soeharto's principle crime was mass murder. No one ever in the history of Southeast Asia committed such an evil bloodbath as Soeharto, fanned on by his CIA prompters, and executed by butchers like Gen. (ret.) Sarwo Edhie and the like.

It is completely incomprehensible to anyone who has followed the bloody career of this "smiling general" that no-one in power seems to remember what really happened. He committed high treason in the clearest sense against Bung Karno, instituted the concentration camp on Buru island -- the largest in Southeast Asia -- and signed endless death warrants resulting in the executions of true Indonesian patriots.

The entire world is talking about violations of basic human rights. The International Court in The Hague is overcrowded with individuals who have violated people's rights. Is everybody in Indonesia merely blind to the mass murderer who also enriched himself at the expense of the people.

Can't President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati straighten out their priorities and deal first with the crimes committed against innocent citizens of a nation terrorized by Soeharto's generals? With average citizens money-matters come second.

WILLEM OLTMANS

Amsterdam