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Indonesia's Wiranto stands by refusal to resign

JAKARTA: Indonesia's former military chief General Wiranto brushed aside again on Wednesday an order to quit the cabinet, insisting he would wait for President Abdurrahman Wahid's return at the weekend to discuss the issue.

Wiranto's refusal to step down after being implicated in last year's brutality in East Timor has sparked fears of a coup while Wahid was on a foreign tour, but many analysts say it has more to do with the general trying to bargain immunity from prosecution.

"I am waiting for the president to return and I will report everything to him, not only my responsibility as minister but also my position over the legal process I face, especially on human rights violations in East Timor," Wiranto said before the start of a regular cabinet meeting.

Wiranto has repeatedly avoided direct comment on Wahid's order last week to resign as coordinating minister for political and security affairs, but has insisted he was innocent.

Wahid has said Wiranto would be reinstated if found innocent, and pardoned if found guilty.

WAITING WIRANTO

"I have already said, resign or not resign. let us wait for the legal process which is fair," Wiranto told reporters when asked if he would step down.

The attorney-general's office is expected to take at least three months to decide whether to act on an official investigation into the East Timor violence which named Wiranto and five other generals as partly responsible.

The military's outgoing spokesman, Major-General Sudrajat, dismissed fears of a coup -- which have rattled markets -- and said there would be no backlash against Wahid.

"I do not see any indication that there is a backlash from the military institution towards the president," told reporters at a ceremony handing over to his replacement.

CONFUSING

Sudrajat said the situation was confusing and clarification was needed from "reliable sources". He did not elaborate.

Wahid sacked Sudrajat, considered close to Wiranto, last month after he sparked a storm by suggesting the president did not have ultimate control over the armed forces.

Wiranto was Indonesia's armed forces commander last year when military-backed militias launched a wave of terror in East Timor after most of the population voted to break from 23 years of harsh Indonesian rule.

He said the issue should be seen in its historical context, a reference to the military's anger when former President B.J. Habibie suddenly offered East Timor independence.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 with the backing of the West, fearful it would become another communist outpost in Asia.

But its brutal rule there, never internationally recognised, soon soured relations with much of the world. Hundreds of thousands of East Timorese are thought to have been killed or died of starvation and disease under Indonesian rule.-Reuters