Golkar's candidate choice draws flak - Indonesia

[dArKeR]

AP , JAKARTA
Thursday, Apr 22, 2004,Page 6

Indonesia's largest political party picked a retired general indicted for human rights abuses in East Timor as its presidential candidate yesterday, drawing condemnation from critics who called him a war criminal.

The Golkar Party of ex-dictator Suharto selected General Wiranto -- who rose through the ranks of the army to become military chief in the final days of the strongman's 32-year rule -- to run in Indonesia's first direct presidential elections in July.

Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, has been indicted by UN-backed prosecutors in East Timor of failing to stop his soldiers and their proxy militias from killing nearly 1,500 people in East Timor in 1999.

Although the indictment has damaged Wiranto's image in the eyes of some voters, he has tapped into an apparent nostalgia for the Suharto era when the economy was prosperous and the country relatively secure. Before being named military chief in 1997, Wiranto served as Suharto's personal adjutant for several years.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/04/22/2003137621