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Indonesian troops have been called out onto the streets of Jakarta
Photo:REUTERS |
The Indonesian president, Abdurrahman Wahid, has issued a decree to suspend the national assembly in a desperate bid to save his position. The move, however, appears to have backfired.
Assembly chairman Amien Rais said the decree would be ignored and Wahid would be removed, probably within hours.
Jakarta police chief Major General Sofyan Jacob said the security forces would also defy Wahid's orders to stop his impeachment.
Security Minister Agum Gumelar announced he was quitting in protest against Wahid's actions, which Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan said were illegal.
Wahid's announcement on national television, just after 1am local time, followed a day of high drama in the capital. Two churches were bombed, injuring more than 70 people and nearly 100 tanks and armoured vehicles rolled past the presidential palace in a show of force by the army.
Rais predicted that the constitutional crisis, that has gripped the world's fourth most populous country for almost a year, would soon be over.
"It is a foregone conclusion that Mr Wahid will be dismissed" today and automatically replaced by his main rival, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, he said.
Declaring that he was acting to save the unity of the troubled nation, Wahid also said general elections would be held within one year.
A formal statement, read by an aide on behalf of the nearly blind president, called for an anti-corruption drive and demanded the breakup of the Golkar Party - formerly the political machine of ex-dictator Suharto and now a major force in the campaign to oust Wahid.
Earlier, more than 2,000 troops and tanks assembled in a downtown park near the palace. It was one of the biggest displays of military might seen in years in the capital of Jakarta.
While some vehicles had loaded .50-calibre machine guns pointing in the direction of the palace, just 300 yards away, the commander of the army's elite strategic reserve, Lt Gen Ryamizard Ryacudu, said it was a routine exercise and not meant to intimidate Wahid.
The president's earlier threats to declare a state of emergency and dissolve the national assembly if its members continued to push for his removal had angered the military.
Moves to impeach Wahid were launched last year after he was accused of involvement in two multimillion-dollar fraud scandals. He was cleared by police and prosecutors.
Legislators, however, pressed ahead with their campaign and censured the president three times this year as a prelude to impeachment. He is also accused of failing to resolve an economic crisis and end separatist violence that threatens to tear apart the nation of 210 million.
The embattled president has warned that moves to oust him could trigger protests, riots and provoke several provinces to break away from Indonesia.
The assembly elected Wahid over Megawati in October 1999.
AP