Indonesia's Suharto in serious condition, bleeding
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-09 21:35

Former Indonesian president Suharto is suffering from internal bleeding and breathing problems and must stay in hospital longer, a senior doctor said on Monday, putting his chances of full recovery at 50 percent.

The 83-year-old former strongman was taken to a Jakarta hospital on Thursday because of unspecified blood problems. He stepped down after 32 years in power in 1998 when social and political chaos engulfed Indonesia.

File photo shows Suharto displaying his ink-stained finger after he voted in a polling station near his residence in central Jakarta on September 20, 2004. [Reuters/file]

"Critical no, but (he is) still unstable," said Mardjo Soebiandono, who heads a special medical team which treats Indonesian presidents.

"There is still bleeding, breathing problems, although they have been subsiding. So tight treatment and observation are needed," he told reporters, adding that the chances of a full recovery from the condition were only "50-50".

"Suharto wants to go home quickly. But the bleeding should stop first before we can conclude when he can go home," Soebiandono said at the hospital where the former autocrat is staying.

He added the bleeding was coming from Suharto's digestive system and had affected his kidneys and lungs.

Suharto transformed Indonesia from economic basketcase to emerging tiger economy but his ironfisted leadership stifled political freedoms and bred widespread corruption.

Indonesian public figures converged on the hospital, including parliament speaker Agung Laksono and secretary-general of Indonesia's top council of Muslim clerics, Din Syamsuddin.

"I wished him well and told him that we pray for his health. He responded with a smile and we shook hands," Syamsuddin told Reuters after the visit.

The cleric added that Suharto's eldest daughter told him her father's health had improved compared to recent days.

"But he did look weak and old," said Syamsuddin who did not talk to doctors when he was in Suharto's room.

Laksono, a legislator from the Golkar party, Suharto's former political vehicle, told reporters the nation should forgive the ex-strongman's faults and appreciate his achievements instead.

Suharto has suffered several strokes since his downfall and rarely appears in public.

Attempts to prosecute him for alleged corruption have foundered because of his ill health.

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