Ex-dictator Suharto improves with dialysis

Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto was responding well to dialysis treatment Sunday but remains in critical condition, his doctor said.

Suharto, 86, was admitted Friday to Pertamina Hospital with swollen intestines, a dangerously low heart rate and anemia.

After being put on a dialysis machine Saturday evening he quickly showed signs of improvement, said chief presidential physician Brig. Gen. Mardjo Subiandono.

Much of the excess fluid in his organs had been drained, his blood pressure returned to normal levels and “he smiled again,” Subiandono said, adding “he is still in critical condition because his blood pressure could drop at any time.”

Suharto was also receiving a blood transfusion and needs a second pacemaker, doctors said.

Suharto, accused of overseeing a brutal purge of more than half a million left-wing opponents at the outset of his 32-year reign, was conscious but drowsy from medication, several Cabinet members said after visiting him.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged Indonesians to pray for Suharto’s recovery.

“We should pray for the best and hope all efforts to restore his health will be successful,” Yudhoyono said in a statement issued Saturday at his palace in the capital. “The country always gives the best health treatment to former leaders.”

A dialysis machine and other equipment was rushed to Suharto’s bedside and 40 specialists assembled to diagnose and treat the former strongman, who was toppled by a pro-democracy uprising during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

Dr. Joko Raharjo, a member of the medical team treating Suharto, said Saturday that the former dictator’s general condition was worse than when he was treated for intestinal bleeding and heart problems in 2006. Raharjo said Suharto had been treated at home for around a week before being admitted to hospital.

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Since his ouster, Suharto has lived a secluded life on a leafy lane in Jakarta and is rarely seen in public. Two years after his ouster, prosecutors filed charges that he embezzled $600 million in public funds, but legal proceedings were suspended because of his poor health.

As an army general, he seized power in a 1965 coup and over the following three decades hundreds of thousands of perceived communists and separatist sympathizers were murdered or imprisoned across this vast island nation of 235 million people. No one has ever been punished for the crimes.

Suharto is said to have suffered permanent brain damage and some speech loss from his ailments, but during recent Islamic holidays he received a stream of high-profile guests and gave a rare media interview in November after winning a defamation lawsuit against Time magazine.

Time published allegations that Suharto and his family had amassed up to $15 billion in stolen state funds. Transparency International has said the Suharto family robbed the nation of more than twice that amount.

In the interview with Gatra news magazine, Suharto vowed to donate most of the $106 million in damages he won from Time to the poor. The publication is appealing the Supreme Court decision.

Critics “can say what they want. It is empty talk,” Suharto said in the interview. “The fact is I have never committed corruption.”