Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno (Photo: Japan Today)From correspondents in Tokyo
Agence France-Presse
THE widow of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno says she will never forgive his successor Suharto, likening him to Pol Pot for his repression.
Suharto seized power from Sukarno in 1965-66 and ruled with an iron fist for another three decades.
Suharto was buried today in a state funeral in central Java after a long illness.
"I don't want to lash out at a dead man but I cannot forgive Suharto," said Japanese-born Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, Sukarno's third wife.
"He was Indonesia's Pol Pot," she said, referring to the late leader of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge.
Ms Dewi, a former bar hostess born as Naoko Nemoto, married Sukarno at age 19 in 1962 after he was charmed by her on a state visit to Tokyo.
After Sukarno died under house arrest in 1970, she returned to Japan where she has become a television personality and runs a jewellery and cosmetics business.
Despite Indonesia's economic progress under Suharto, his tenure was marked by repression, from the killings of at least half a million communists and their sympathisers from 1966 to invading East Timor and quelling separatist movements in Aceh and Papua.
Ms Dewi blamed Suharto both for the death of her husband - "the man who declared independence and became Indonesia's first president" - and for the mass killings throughout the country.
"Although he had a soft face, he could be cruel and heartless at the same time," said Ms Dewi, who met Suharto several times.
"You could not tell what he was like on the inside. What he said and what he did were two different things," she said.
Suharto also left a legacy of corruption, bleeding up to $US35 billion ($40bn) out of the Indonesian economy, according to the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.
"Even today, many Indonesians suffer from that legacy and the income gap continues to widen," Ms Dewi said.
She scolded Suharto for not making court appearances late in his life to answer corruption charges, citing illness.
"He ended his life living among friends," she said. "I think he was a very lucky man."
Suharto was laid to rest with full military honours in his family mausoleum in the town of Matesih in a state funeral attended by many of the world's leading political figures.
Condolences also poured in from around the world.
He died of organ failure yesterday at the age of 86.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a short speech as close relatives covered his coffin with rose and jasmin petals during the ceremony.
He was buried next to his wife, Siti Suhartinah, who died in 1996.
Hundreds of mourners gathered along the flag-lined road leading to the mausoleum on the main island of Java to pay their respects as his funeral processsion passed.
Suharto seized power from Sukarno in 1965-66 and ruled with an iron fist for another three decades.
Suharto was buried today in a state funeral in central Java after a long illness.
"I don't want to lash out at a dead man but I cannot forgive Suharto," said Japanese-born Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno, Sukarno's third wife.
"He was Indonesia's Pol Pot," she said, referring to the late leader of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge.
Ms Dewi, a former bar hostess born as Naoko Nemoto, married Sukarno at age 19 in 1962 after he was charmed by her on a state visit to Tokyo.
After Sukarno died under house arrest in 1970, she returned to Japan where she has become a television personality and runs a jewellery and cosmetics business.
Despite Indonesia's economic progress under Suharto, his tenure was marked by repression, from the killings of at least half a million communists and their sympathisers from 1966 to invading East Timor and quelling separatist movements in Aceh and Papua.
Ms Dewi blamed Suharto both for the death of her husband - "the man who declared independence and became Indonesia's first president" - and for the mass killings throughout the country.
"Although he had a soft face, he could be cruel and heartless at the same time," said Ms Dewi, who met Suharto several times.
"You could not tell what he was like on the inside. What he said and what he did were two different things," she said.
Suharto also left a legacy of corruption, bleeding up to $US35 billion ($40bn) out of the Indonesian economy, according to the anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.
"Even today, many Indonesians suffer from that legacy and the income gap continues to widen," Ms Dewi said.
She scolded Suharto for not making court appearances late in his life to answer corruption charges, citing illness.
"He ended his life living among friends," she said. "I think he was a very lucky man."
Suharto was laid to rest with full military honours in his family mausoleum in the town of Matesih in a state funeral attended by many of the world's leading political figures.
Condolences also poured in from around the world.
He died of organ failure yesterday at the age of 86.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a short speech as close relatives covered his coffin with rose and jasmin petals during the ceremony.
He was buried next to his wife, Siti Suhartinah, who died in 1996.
Hundreds of mourners gathered along the flag-lined road leading to the mausoleum on the main island of Java to pay their respects as his funeral processsion passed.
