Former Indonesian president Suharto was recovering from his latest health scare Tuesday as police again searched the family homes for his fugitive youngest son on the run for more than a week.
"He is out of the worrying stage and is now asleep," Anton Tabah, secretary to the former president, told AFP, after the former strongman suffered bouts of breathing difficulties.
He said the 79-year-old Suharto "is now in a stable condition and he has been off the oxygen supply since yesterday (Monday) evening."
But Tabah denied that Suharto, who was put on oxygen on Monday morning and stayed on it most of the day, had suffered another stroke.
"Although we have adequate (medical) equipment here, if it had been a stroke, we would have rushed him to the hospital," he said.
Suharto has had two minor strokes since he resigned from the presidency amid mounting public pressure in May 1998.
"I don't think it's a stroke. I haven't consulted the doctors but his health is not stable," one of Suharto's lawyers, Juan Felix Tampubolon, told journalists outside the Suharto residence on Tuesday.
"He is very weak and he is now resting," Tampubolon said, adding that "he is breathing on his own, without any machine."
Suharto had earlier this year been declared physically and mentally unfit to stand trial for corruption, the same charges levelled against his son who has become the subject of a major manhunt in Jakarta.
An appeals court has since ordered the South Jakarta court to reopen the trial against the elder Suharto.
Tabah said Suharto's health was being monitored around the clock by two doctors.
Meanwhile, police were Tuesday for the second time searching the houses of Suharto and his family, clustered in the posh Central Jakarta residential district of Menteng, for Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, 38, Suharto's youngest son.
The business magnate and multi-millionaire was declared a fugitive on November 3 after he failed to surrender to authorities to serve an 18-month jail term for corruption.
Several plainclothes policemen were seen entering Suharto's plush private residence in the upscale Menteng residential area in Central Jakarta at 7:15 am (0015 GMT), witnesses said.
Among the search party were Jakarta chief detective Senior Superintendent Harry Montolalu and outgoing spokesman Superintendent Nur Usman.
But after a two-hour search, Montolalu said Tommy was still missing.
"We have searched every room that could be used as a hiding place including the room of Mr. Suharto himself ... but he (Tommy) was nowhere to be found," Montolalu told journalists.
Police had mounted surveillance teams at "18 different spots" across Jakarta, including three houses in the area where the former first family lives, Montolalu added.
Last Wednesday, police and prosecutors spent a fruitless four hours searching the homes of Suharto, Tommy and four of Tommy's siblings -- "Mamiek" Siti Hutami Endang, Tutut, and brothers Sigit Harjoyudanto and Bambang Trihatmojo.
South Jakarta's Chief Prosecutor Antasari Azhar told AFP his office would seal Tommy's residence at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT).
"The purpose of the move is to use the house as collateral just in case Tommy cannot or refuses to pay his 30 billion rupiah (3.23 million dollar) fine," Azhar said.
The Supreme Court on September 22 overturned acquittals by two lower courts and found Tommy and his business partner Richard Gelael guilty of causing the state 10.7 million dollars in losses through a land swap scam.
If jailed, Tommy -- a one-time womanizer, now married with a child -- would be the first in the family to be put behind bars since Suharto was ousted.
He and his five siblings control some of the country's biggest conglomerates, obtained prior to their father's fall – JAKARTA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
