Sam Pawlett's posting from Asiet was a tremendously informative trove of articles. But since it was so long, some people might not have made it to the very end, where they ventured a very interesting theory I haven't heard anywhere else:
<citing Asiet>
Rumor has it that Prabowo, Suharto's "disgraced" son-in-law and former "golden boy" (about whom US Sec. of Defense Cohen made glowing remarks during a visit to Jakarta in Jan. 1998), has recently slipped back into the country after staying abroad in Jordan and elsewhere since August 1998.
Prior to becoming head of the dreaded Kopassus special forces, Prabowo cut his teeth so to speak as the mastermind behind the "black ninja" death squad terror campaign in East Timor. From 1985-98, every significant Jakarta operative in East Timor from the governor down to the village level has been a member of the Prabowo network.
It is believed by some well-informed sources that Prabowo and his operatives have used the East Timor situation to re-assert their power after coming out on the losing end of Prabowo's failed power grab in May 1998 -- when Kopassus gunned down students at Trisakti university and instigated massive devastation, mayhem, rapes of Chinese women, and killings as a smoke screen to seize power.
With Wiranto's so-called credibility on the line after the imposition of martial law, it is not Wiranto but Prabowo himself who can decide when the terror in Timor stops, and this is the bargaining chip Prabowo is using to re-assert his power in TNI. In other words, Prabowo has Wiranto by the balls and is using the unspeakable horrors in East Timor as his bargaining chip.
Prabowo, moreover, controls a war chest of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, much of it coming from the business empires of his wife Titiek Suharto and his brother Hashim. Recently, it was revealed that US$250 million was missing from Cement Cibinong, the crown jewel in the Titiek-Hashim empire, which may have been used to bankroll Prabowo's black operations intended to undermine Wiranto and buy significant numbers DPR and MPR members to shore up Prabowo's political base.
It is also believed that the "black ninja" terror campaign in Java last year was the first stage in Prabowo's masterplan to reassert his power and undermine Wiranto. In order to turn off that campaign, it is alleged that Wiranto made certain concessions such as not pressing to court martial Prabowo or his operatives for the Trisakti killings and abductions and torture of government critics -- and not to purge members of Prabowo's extensive network from the ranks of TNI and its intelligence apparatus.
<end of cite>
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__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com