Soeharto's crime

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