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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - During ex-Indonesian dictator Suharto's weeklong hospital stay, the country's political elite stumbled over one another to visit the ailing strongman. Emerging from the elite Pertamina Hospital, they described him as a great leader and "father of the country."
Neither current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono nor anybody else mentioned Suharto's dismal human rights record or his history of corruption on a staggering scale, sending the strongest signal yet that the dictator's long-dormant graft case for allegedly stealing $600 million would not be reopened.
"What the government is trying to do is distance themselves from the complicated past," said Marzuki Darusman, who was attorney general when the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that Suharto was unfit to stand trial because of his health. "There is a sense that they would be putting themselves on trial if they put Suharto on trial."
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