(13 Feb 2000) Indonesian/Nat
Indonesia's President appears to have backed down from his repeated demands that his powerful security chief General Wiranto step down immediately over his alleged involvement in the bloodshed in East Timor.
President Abdurrahman Wahid had ordered the attorney general to mount an investigation of Wiranto's role in the violence that shook the former Indonesian province last September.
And a government official on Sunday said Wiranto would remain at his present position until President Abdurrahman Wahid made a decision after reviewing the report of the team.
The latest developments came after Wiranto met Wahid in Jakarta just hours after the president returned from a 16-day tour of the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
The trip was largely overshadowed by his long-distance public row with Wiranto, accused by Indonesian and U-N human-rights panels of overseeing violence in East Timor in his former role as armed forces commander.
The dispute has tested Indonesia's jerky transition towards democracy ever since Wahid became president in October and attempted to reduce the military's long-standing sway over politics.
He may not have been the country's leader, but most people agree that until last year, General Wiranto was the unchallenged strongman of Indonesia.
The security minister and former armed forces commander built his power base during the long rule of President Suharto, which ended last year.
Such was his influence that according to rumour, it was Wiranto who told Suharto when it was time to go.
Throughout the short presidency of Suharto's successor, B-J Habibie, the general remained an ominous figure in the background.
In a country where the armed forces play a major role in determining who holds power and who remains there, Wiranto's support was a stabilising factor for Habibie's government during his time in office.
But it is generally believed that the president had little control over the military during his five months in office.
And it precisely in these five months that militia violence ravaged East Timor following the territory's overwhelming vote to separate from Indonesia.
The bloodshed began to escalate in the run-up to the vote with pro-Jakarta militias openly attacking independence campaigners.
But as the bloodshed worsened, Indonesian security forces - which Jakarta had insisted should maintain order in East Timor - were seen to look on and made no attempts to intervene.
Indonesian police and military were even seen to direct militia as they attacked their opponents.
At least 250 people were killed and almost all of East Timor's buildings were burned or ransacked before international peacekeepers restored order.
Wiranto has admitted that some lower-ranking members of the military backed the militias, but he denies that the army actively supported the violence.
Throughout the unrest in East Timor, the then armed forces chief carefully maintained an appearance of neutrality.
He made sure he was seen to have good relations with pro-independence leaders and others calling for peace in East Timor.
But many observers wonder whether the general - as supreme chief of the Indonesian forces - could really have been so squeaky clean.
The turning point in Wiranto's fortunes came with the election as president of Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid, in a poll which Wiranto himself had at one point been tipped to win.
Within days of Wahid's election, on a promise to bring peace and justice to Indonesia, the general issued an official apology for the military's actions in East Timor.
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