Former Indonesian President Suharto in 2004. (AP photo)

General Suharto led the vast and culturally diverse archipelago of Indonesia for more than 30 years until he was forced out during a series of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1998.

One of the longest-reigning dictators of the 20th century, Suharto oversaw the transformation of the largely Muslim country into a modern, prosperous nation of more than 200 million.

Annual growth averaged seven per cent for decades. Incomes rose sharply, at least for the richest Indonesians, with Suharto at the seat of power.

But so did the violent suppression of human rights backed by a military that took orders directly from him. Suharto and his family were also accused of amassing billions of dollars in state funds - an allegation he denied.

In his later years, a series of strokes left Suharto with permanent brain damage and impaired speech, which prevented him from facing a trial on charges of corruption and widespread human rights violations.

Brutal repression and the 'New Order'

Suharto's rise to power began in 1965, during a time of enormous social upheaval in Indonesia. An attempted army coup ended in the assassinations of six top generals. Suharto, who was army chief, put down the rebellion. He and fellow right-wing military leaders then engineered a purge of pro-communist and pro-Sukarno forces.

Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, eventually surrendered power to Suharto. By 1966, General Suharto's forces had consolidated their power and begun eliminating tens of thousands of suspected communist sympathizers across the country. By 1967, he was acting president and the following year, he was elected president.

Repression was a persistent hallmark of Suharto's regime. All opposition was quickly put down. Elections, which were held every five years, were so rigged that Time magazine's Asian edition once reported that the winning margins of his Golkar party were "calibrated" in advance to the percentage point.

Suharto's "New Order" fight against communism won him early CIA backing. But his iron fist eventually reached out to include a host of opposition targets, including opposition politicians, ethnic Chinese (whom Suharto viewed as communists) and labour unions.

Bloodshed in East Timor

But it was Suharto's annexation of East Timor that will likely go down as the most shameful act of his leadership. East Timor is the predominantly Roman Catholic former Portuguese colony that occupies the eastern half of the island of Timor.

In 1975, with Portuguese colonization at an end, East Timor declared itself independent. But just days later, Suharto's military invaded and occupied the country, installing a puppet government that asked Indonesia to annex the territory. By some estimates, a third of East Timor's population was wiped out during the occupation – up to 200,000 of the 600,000 people who lived there at the time.

Suharto's Indonesian forces claimed that the prominent East Timorese party that tried to fill the vacuum left by the departing Portuguese was little more than a front for communists. So the crackdown that Suharto later engineered was largely tolerated by the United States.

Suharto was careful to curry favour with the West. He bought their weapons and opened up Indonesia's huge consumer market – the country is, after all, the fourth most populous country on the planet.

The pro-Western sentiments were enough to stifle official Western criticism for many years. Repression was overlooked as long as the Suharto remained tough on communism and open for business.

Suharto's tactics were familiar to despots everywhere. When a commission found evidence of corruption early in his regime, Suharto disbanded the commission. When students demonstrated against that corruption, he banned protests. The press was censored; reporters were controlled. Scrutiny of his family's finances became next to impossible.

A strongman's downfall

There have been allegations that Suharto, his relatives and their friends stole, misappropriated or otherwise embezzled as much as $45 billion in cash, real estate and art from Indonesia's treasury. Suharto and his family have denied the allegations.

Suharto's downfall picked up steam in 1997, with the country hobbled by the Asian financial crisis and pressured by the International Monetary Fund to deal with its crippling debt. Anti-Suharto forces seized the moment and his iron grip began to falter.

Gen. Suharto, the military strongman who had held a fractious country together with the frequent use of military force, eventually saw that force turn against him. Demonstrators were increasingly emboldened as cracks appeared in Suharto's own military.

Student-led anti-Suharto riots, fuelled by triple-digit inflation and severe currency devaluations, flared up in several cities. By May of 1998, the pressure was too much. Suharto relinquished power to his vice-president, Jusuf Habibie.

In 2000, Suharto was indicted on charges of embezzling $600 million in state funds and placed under house arrest. The case never went to trial.

When Suharto entered hospital in May 2006 for colon surgery, the country's attorney general announced that the government was abandoning legal proceedings against the former president.

It was the fourth time Suharto had been admitted to hospital, seriously ill, since his ouster. Doctors said a series of strokes had also permanently affected his speech and memory.

Suharto was simply too sick to prosecute, the government said.

The decision angered human rights activists. They wanted him prosecuted not only for looting the country but also in connection with at least 500,000 political killings as well the deaths of tens of thousands of people at the hands of security forces in the separatist regions of Papua, Aceh and East Timor.

Hundreds gathered in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta on May 21 to protest against the decision not to prosecute. It was the eighth anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstrations that had brought Suharto down.

However, most Indonesians keep Suharto in high regard for stabilizing the country and improving economic conditions, Radio Netherlands reporter Michel Mass told CBC News from Jakarta in January 2008.

"They don't remember the atrocities that happened during his reign," Mass said. "They remember that it was a peaceful, quiet time, mostly."

[an error occurred while processing this directive]