Bold Killing Threatens Stability in Indonesia

In a brazen daytime attack, two men on motorbikes Thursday killed the Supreme Court judge who last year sentenced the son of former dictator Suharto to 18 months in prison.

The killing, which occurred only hours before ousted President Abdurrahman Wahid departed for the United States, threatened to bring renewed instability to Indonesia as President Megawati Sukarnoputri seeks to consolidate her newly won power.

Judge Syaifudin Kartasasmita, 61, was on his way to his office when the two men forced his car off the road in a suburb of Jakarta, the capital, police said. They shot him as many as five times through the car window while bystanders watched.

National police spokesman Maj. Gen. Didi Widayadi said the killers were professional assassins. “It appears the judge had been targeted,” he said. Police are investigating the motive.

Kartasasmita was the presiding judge who sentenced Suharto’s son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, to prison last September for his part in an $11-million land scam. Hutomo, who once lived the life of a wealthy playboy, vanished in November rather than report to prison.

A high-profile nationwide search ordered by Wahid turned into a farce and exposed the president’s lack of authority over the police and military.

In hiding, Hutomo became a symbol of Wahid’s inability to control his own government and his failure to hold Suharto and his cronies accountable for the billions of dollars in public funds they allegedly stole during three decades of military rule.

Wahid, a nearly blind Muslim cleric, was removed from office Monday by the People’s Consultative Assembly for his incompetence and his alleged role in two multimillion-dollar corruption scandals. He was never tried on the allegations and denies any wrongdoing. He maintains that his ouster was unconstitutional.

Wahid and his supporters contend that he was the victim of a campaign by Suharto family members, their business associates and their friends in the military to destabilize his administration through bombings and political intrigue.

Now that he has been forced out, Wahid asserted, Suharto’s cronies are back in control of the country.

“You can see corruption will return,” Wahid told reporters. “They are now dividing the spoils. Special ministries will be there for grabs. Indonesia will be looted. There will be no law, and human rights will be” undermined.

Although Megawati was an opposition leader during the Suharto years, she won the presidency Monday with the support of the military and Golkar, the former Suharto ruling party.

The assassination of the judge was a brutal send-off for Wahid, who left for the United States for medical care.

The timing was reminiscent of bombings that occurred during the last year each time Suharto or his son was called in by judges or prosecutors to answer corruption charges.

In September, a car bomb exploded in the parking garage of the Jakarta Stock Exchange the day before Suharto was scheduled to appear in court. The blast killed 15 people, most of them drivers who were waiting for their bosses to get off work.

Wahid publicly accused Hutomo of being behind the wave of bombings, including the stock exchange blast, and ordered his arrest. When police let Hutomo go after briefly questioning him, Wahid was livid.

Soon after, Kartasasmita reversed a lower court ruling in the land scam case and found Hutomo guilty of stealing the $11 million in government money. The decision was highly unusual in a country where the courts are notoriously corrupt and the wealthy can often buy favorable decisions.

Hutomo, who has one of the best-known faces in the country, has remained in hiding since. Some officials suspect that members of the military loyal to Suharto have been helping to conceal him.

A court eventually dropped charges against Suharto, who was judged too ill to stand trial.

Wahid, popularly known by his nickname, Gus Dur, contends that he is still legally president. Since Monday, he had refused to leave the presidential palace and turn it over to Megawati.

His supporters once numbered in the tens of millions. After few rallied to his defense, he agreed to a face-saving plan to vacate the palace and fly to Baltimore for treatment of irregular blood pressure.

As 2,000 backers gathered outside the palace to see the former president depart for the airport, President Bush telephoned Megawati from Washington and applauded Indonesia’s success in changing presidents without bloodshed for the first time in its history.

During a 10-minute conversation, Bush stressed the U.S. commitment to helping the world’s fourth-most-populous nation solve its formidable problems, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

“The president called and congratulated her and Indonesia on the peaceful transfer of power and emphasized the importance of Indonesia’s unity, prosperity and continued democratic development,” Fleischer said.

About 4 p.m., Wahid left the presidential palace for the last time and went across the street to Merdeka Square, where his gloomy supporters awaited him.

Some shouted, “Gus Dur, you are still our president!”

In a brief speech, Wahid pledged to return to the struggle but urged his followers to remain patient and avoid violence. “I will come back and continue fighting for democracy,” he said.