World

Indonesia Power Struggle Heats Up

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 4, 2000 / 6:19 AM EST / CBS

The army chief of staff said the situation in Indonesia was becoming increasingly dangerous, but he promised on Friday that the army would not launch a coup. Thursday, President Abdurrahman Wahid accused some generals of holding secret meetings while he was overseas.

Speaking in The Hague, Netherlands, Wahid said a group of army generals had met in the Chinatown district of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, not far from the presidential palace.

"We fully control the situation, so they have to be careful about what they are doing," Wahid said Thursday during a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok.

"In principle, the situation is getting more dangerous and uncertain," the official news agency Antara quoted army chief of staff Gen. Tyasno Sudarto as telling reporters.

Sudarto said the military as an institution would not launch a coup but added that he could not supervise his officers individually.

The president said he had ordered armed forces head Adm. Widodo Adisutjipto and national police chief Gen. Rusdihardjo to crack down on any attempt to disrupt public order.

Wahid is engaged in a deepening power struggle with his security minister, Gen. Wiranto, a former military commander accused by government investigators of allowing pro-Indonesian militia gangs to devastate East Timor after the territory voted to break away from Indonesia in August.

Wiranto, who led the Indonesian armed forces at the time, has denied responsibility for the mayhem and ignored Wahid's repeated calls that he resign from the Cabinet.

Wahid who is on a tour of 13 European and Asian nations said he had instructed Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono to ask Wiranto to step down immediately.

Sudarsono told reporters Friday: "I have done my duty," but he added that Wiranto had not reacted upon learning of the president's request.

"Let us be patient and wait until president (Wahid) returns on Feb. 13," Sudarsono said.

The military's top spokesman, Air Rear Marshall Graito Usodo, denied any covert meeting of generals had taken place.

Wahid assumed office in October as the first freely elected head of state in 44 years. Since then he has antagonized the military elite by whittling away at their position and power. He replaced Wiranto as armed forces chief and has insisted he become a civilian.

Analysts continued to discount the possibility of a coup, saying the military was too divided, and that sections within it -- particularly the air force and navy -- supported Wahid's reformist administration.

In another controversy, an exiled guerrilla leader from troubled Aceh province, Hasan di Tiro, angrily denied claims reportedly made by Wahid that he had agreed to a cease-fire in the troubled region.

Earlier, Wahid was quoted as saying di Tiro, who lives in Sweden, had met with an Indonesian diplomat in Geneva, Switzerland, and had agreed to halt ostilities.

The guerrillas have waged a bloody, 25-year struggle to break free of Indonesian rule. Violence has escalated sharply in the past decade, claiming at least 5,000 lives.