The Soehartos should be more frank: Muladi

The Soehartos should be more frank: Muladi

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Muladi has suggested former
president Soeharto and his family be more transparent and honest
about their wealth in order to help accelerate the government's
probe into their alleged ill-gotten wealth.

"What's the use of possessing a lot of money when one receives
endless denunciations from many people? It's better to be frank
in providing information (of their wealth), so the problems can
be settled thoroughly," the minister told Antara in Vienna,
Austria, on Thursday.

Muladi, who also led the same ministry in Soeharto's last
Cabinet, and Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib are in Austria on a
mission to trace the whereabouts of the alleged US$9 billion
transfer made by the Soehartos from a Swiss bank as reported
recently by Time magazine.

The ministers and their entourage, including Ghalib's son who
is acting as adjutant to his father, had earlier visited
Switzerland.

Many however, speculated that Muladi and Ghalib were on an
impossible mission and part of a theatrical puppet show put on by
President B.J. Habibie's administration.

But Muladi, an outspoken law expert and a former rector of
Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, insisted on
Thursday he would do his best to prove he was serious in tracing
the Soehartos' alleged fortune.

He said he would even put his minister's career on the line.

Muladi said investigating the alleged crime with Ghalib was a
challenge, since the latter has been strongly criticized by the
public back home.

"Let people accuse us of bad things and be pessimistic about
what we're doing in Switzerland and Austria because the most
important thing for me is to do my very best.

I don't even have a problem if I'm no longer a minister. I
want to go back to the campus of Undip," Muladi said, referring
to the university.

In its May 24 Asian edition, Time magazine claimed in a
special report titled Soeharto Inc. that the former strongman and
his six children had amassed a total of $15 billion during
Soeharto's 32-year rule.

Soeharto has denied all the allegations, including the $9
billion transfer claim, and has submitted power of attorney to
the government to trace and collect any of his alleged overseas
accounts.

The retired five-star general said the reports had slandered
him and has lodged a complaint with the National Police against
the New York-based magazine for slander and libel.

His six children have acknowledged the accuracy of a few of
the reports, but denied most of them.

So far, none of them have announced plans to follow their
father's move and file a complaint against the weekly.

The most recent member of the Soeharto clan to visit Ghalib's
office in South Jakarta was Siti Hediati "Titiek" Harijadi. Time
claimed she had amassed an estimated $75 million fortune.

Like her five siblings, Titiek, wife of Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo
Subianto, former commander of the country's elite special force,
Kopassus, said most of the report was untrue.

She acknowledged that as an arts collector, she did own works
of the country's noted painting masters Affandi and Basuki
Abdullah.

"But the value (of the paintings) does not reach $5 million as
reported by Time. If it's so, I'll ask Time to buy the
paintings," she said with a smile before being ushered away by
lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon and a group of plainclothes
officers.

Titiek, 40, was said by the magazine to have a residence in
London's Grosvenor Square, as well as holdings in financial
services, power plants, computers, banking and property
companies.

Spokesman for the Attorney General's Office Soehandoyo said
later that Titiek could not answer all the questions asked by the
team of attorneys.

Soehandoyo said the attorneys were still waiting for
clarification on her alleged holdings in Moscow, Usbekiztan,
Canada, Jordan, India, Yemen, Cambodia, Spain, Sudan, South
Africa, Madagascar, Singapore, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Hong
Kong, Myanmar, the Virgin Islands, and Florida in the United
States of America.

The spokesman revised his remarks later in the evening, saying
that Titiek had answered all the questions by denying all the
reports.

From Canberra, Antara quoted Friday's issue of the Australian
Financial Review daily as saying that Soeharto and his associates
owned properties in the Goldfield Heights highland area in
Queenstown, New Zealand.

The area, well-known for its Wakatipu Lake, was a popular
holiday destination for the Soehartos during his presidency.

The Australian daily reported that Titiek owned two modern
resort houses bought from a multinational company.

Next to her properties was a smaller resort house, belonging
to the former head of the National Logistics Agency, Bustanil
Arifin.

Titiek's younger brother, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, owned
an A$1.9 million luxury hotel, Lilybank Lodge, by the Tekapo
lakeside which is surrounded by glacier mountains.

Former minister of finance Radius Prawiro, the late Tien
Soeharto's close relative, was reported to have a resort house
near Queenstown registered under the name of Loka Prawiro, one of
Radius' children.

The Soehartos have yet to issue a statement about the new
claims. (emf)