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Suharto leaves hospital for home

Posted on: Wednesday, 31 May 2006, 00:03 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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