Suharto leaves hospital for home

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s ailing former leader
Suharto left his hospital sick bed for home on Wednesday after
being treated for nearly a month due to internal bleeding.

An ambulance took the former president to his home in
Jakarta’s elite suburb of Mentang, where doctors will continue
to monitor his condition.

Surrounded by four of his children, Suharto’s looked pale
and a nurse helped him lift his right hand as he waved to
reporters.

It was Suharto’s first public appearance since the former
general was admitted to Jakarta’s Pertamina hospital in early
May for the bleeding in his digestive system.

The critical phase after operations was over, but he was
still weak, a doctor said.

“As it (already) was before he got sick, he still has
difficulties in speaking and it would take a longer time for
his memory to recover. But the conditions that posed a threat
to his life are over,” senior doctor Djoko Rahadjo told
reporters.

Suharto, who will be 85 next week, has been admitted to
hospital a number of times since he stepped down in 1998 when
social and political chaos engulfed Indonesia. He has suffered
several strokes since then and has had lung and kidney
problems.

Once dubbed the “Smiling General” during his heyday as
president, Suharto has been a subject of government probes over
allegations of graft, but prosecutors this month stopped
pursuing the case against him because of his poor health.

Suharto was widely credited for bringing Indonesia out of
the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1960′s to a rising economic
powerhouse, but his rule was also marked by curbs on political
freedom and endemic graft.

Critics say he and members of his family corruptly amassed
billions of dollars, accusations they deny. His youngest son,
Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, is in jail for masterminding the
murder of a Supreme Court judge in 2001.