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General Prabowo or Prabowo Subianto was Suharto's son-in-law who allegedly staged the chaos, plunderings, rapings, and murders during the 1998 Reformation. He is the son of former finance minister, Sumitro Djojohadikusumo and his brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, was the controller of one of Indonesia's larger conglomerates, the Tirtamas Group, before it went bankrupt during the 1997-98 economic crisis.

An extremely powerful man before the fall of Suharto, Prabowo came to be widely hated as a war criminal and "the most corrupt man in the country", "an opportunist and a sadist".

Back at the East Timor Prabowo, a Kopassus officer, is charged with having been involved in many human rights violations at the conflict zone. However, most of the crimes with which his name was connected were committed in the effort to block the 1998 Reforms.

He is accused of having been at that time involved in the kidnappings, tortures, abuses, and murders over the anti-Suharto intellectuals and activists, operations mostly implemeted using his loyalists within the Indonesian Army, especially its elite unit Kopassus.

Many of the victims are still missing and believed dead. Among them are poet and artist Wiji Tukul, as well as Bimo Petrus Anugerah, Ismail, Mochammad Yusuf, Sonny, Ryan or Yani Afri, Ucok Munandar Siahaan, Yadin Muhyidin, Noval Said Alkatiri, Herman Hendrawan, Suyat, Deddy Hamdun, dan Hendra Hambali.

However, some of his victims survived to tell the story, including Pius Lustri Lanang, Desmon Mahesa, Haryanto Taslam. There are also the present members of IKOHI (Ikatan Keluarga Orang Hilang Indonesia - Indonesian Association of Missing People's Families), among them which are Mugiyanto, Aan Rusdiyanto, Nezar Patria, Faisol Reza, Rahardjo Waluyo Jati, dan Andi Arif.

When Prabowo was called by Armed Forces General General Wiranto to account for his acts, he admitted his involvement in the 'arrests' of nine activists - taking care to name nine who are still alive, but denying responsibility for detainess who remain missing. He claimed that the operation had not been reported to the top command of ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces) because he 'didn't want to stir them up'.

In fact the 'arrests' of the nine activists, an act admitted by Prabowo himself, could not be considered a legal 'arrest' at all: there was no warrant, there was no normal prochedure, the detainers wore masks, while the victims were blindfolded and handcuffed on the way to the detaining camp - more like being kidnapped rather than being arrested.

In the still mysterious detention center (supposedly a military camp, based on the vitcims' testimonies, but its location has not yet been ascertained), the victims were tortured for days. Most of their time was spent blidnfolded, while being forced to answer repeated questions. They were kicked, punched, terrorized physically and mentally, and given electric shocks(including in vital areas of the body)

Aside from the abuses of pro-democracy activists, Prabowo is also believed to have used Kopasus - and the army in general, which was "under his de facto control" - as the instrument of "a field-exercise in triggering chaos". Such "exercises" during 1997 and 1998 mostly targeted the Indonesian-Chinese minority

The following arguments were brought up in support of the assertion that Prabowo and Kopasus were responsible for the sowing of chaos and the attacks on the Indonesian Chinese:

• 1. One of the worst outbreaks occurred at the city of Solo, Central Java, while the headquarters of Kopasus was just a few miles southwest of the city - but had taken no action to help the overwhelmed law enforcement authorities. From this can be concluded that either Kopasus was passively letting the angry mob rampage in the city - or worse, was actively masterminding the spread of chaos in the city.

• 2.In many cases of looting and arson, both at the capital Jakarta and Solo, Central Java, witnesses testified to the presence of rioters with sophisticated weapons such as flame-throwers -nearly impossible for ordinary civilians, but easily avaiable in military armouries. Moreover, there were in many cases witnesses - from among both the victims and the looters themselves - who told that in many areas the outbreak of riots was triggered by the appearance of strangers who seemed to have undergone physical training, and had tattoos and short military-style haircuts. Such stangers typically came by motorbikes and distributed swords and Molotov cocktails to the forming mobs.

• 3. There were also testimonies of trained snipers, apprently from the army, involved in the Trisakti Incident, shooting at university students and killing six of them. This was the prelude May "chaos" and riots.

• 4. On May 14, 1998, General Wiranto - Minister of Security and Defense and the highest commander of ABRI (Indonesian military) - took the decisive action of decoying Prabowo and the other commanders to an army top officials' ceremony at Malang,East Java. In his absence Wiranto brought the Marines from East Java to West Java and Central Java to ease the chaos. Miraculously, the riots decreased overnight snd stopped altogether on the next day. Prabowo has publicly stated his anger at being thus outwitted by Wiranto's "army summit", is known to be still sore about this. The strong and immediate effect of taking Prabowo and his supporters out the 'operational zone' is cited as proof that it was indeed they who had been masterminding the riots and the chaos. By this theory, Wiranto had taken this step once he realised that the main source of the chaos were the supposed army peacekeepers, and that unles he took action he would remain supreme commander in name only, with Prabowo in de facto control.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page).

These theories are supported by documentats and archives, as well researches and investigations, including

• The Conclusions of the TGPF (Combined Team of Facts Finders), which clearly expressed Prabowo's involvement in the chaos, and . The conclusions were accepted by the United States government as US Foreign Affairs Department through Robert Rubin stated that the conclusions were accountable.)

• The independent research carried out by R.J. May and Geoff Forrester (former Vice-Secretary of the Commerce and Foreign Department of Australia )

Prabowo's true ambition was exposed further by a recently published book entitled 'Detik-detik yang Menentukan: Jalan Panjang Indonesia Menuju Demokrasi' (roughly translated into Decisive Seconds: Indonesia's Long Way to Democracy). It was written Habibie, who was Indonesian Vice-President during the "May Chaos" and then became President after Suharto resigned also by May.

Habibie exposed that in his early days in power, there were wild movements of Army units around his palace, organized by Prabowo - the most reasonable explanation being that Prabowo was at the time was preparing for a coup. The plan failed, however, as General Wiranto quickly reported the movement to Habibie, and the President removed Prabowo and many of his associates from their posts.

Even by now, after Suharto had resigned, Prabowo is still considered a powerful man, even a pretty untouchable one. Until now, he was never put on trial for the crimes he allegedly committed.

By end of 2003, Prabowo, who still had some support in the Suharto-created ruling party Golkar, felt bold enough to run for President. He was, however, defeated by his former superior Wiranto in the party congress convened to nominate the party's representative for President candidacy.

Even so, Prabowo is still active in the political life and still seems to be waiting for a good opportunity to seize. In 2005 he was believed to be involved in the spreading of "Wiranto AFI VCD". It was a VCD with a cover photo from AFI (a popular Indonesian talent show similar to American Idol)], but containing a supposed documentation of the May 1998 Chaos which placed most of the blame on Wiranto.

(although it has to be set clear that Wiranto by the time was just 'official' leader, but all of the commands came directly from top - from the President; and also, Prabowo by the time was believed to own more field power than Wiranto as he had close ties with the Suharto himself. By the time the May 1998 chaos occurred,most of the vital posts in the Army and in the capital city operational forces were occupied by Prabowo's close associates by the time, such as Maj.General Sjafie Sjamsoeddin, Maj.General Kivlan Zen, Maj.General Muchdi Purwopranjono, etc).

1. Testimony of Andi Arif
2. Geoff Forrester and R.J. May, The Fall of Soeharto, C.Hurst&Co., London,1998

• Living people