State Funeral Held for Ex-Indonesian President Habibie

Fri, 20 Sep 2019

State Funeral Held for Ex-Indonesian President Habibie

Voice of America
12 Sep 2019, 23:05 GMT+10

Thousands of Indonesians gathered in Jakarta Thursday to bid their final goodbyes to former President B.J. Habibie.

President Joko Widodo led the mourners at the state funeral at Kalibata Heroes Memorial Park for Habibie, who died at an army hospital Wednesday of heart failure at the age of 83.

Habibie was a trained aerospace engineer who had been working in Germany for nearly two decades when then-President Suharto convinced him to come back home in 1974 and lead an effort to industrialize Indonesia's economy. In announcing his death Wednesday, President Widodo praised Habibie as the "father of Indonesian technology."

He rose through the ranks to become Suharto's vice president in 1998, and was sworn in as Indonesia's third president in May of that year after the Asian financial crisis sparked massive protests that forced the autocratic Suharto to step down after three decades in power.

Habibie ushered in a number of democratic reforms, including greater press freedoms and the release of political prisoners. He also allowed East Timor, the former Portuguese colony that Indonesia had ruled since 1975, to hold a referendum on their future. The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, which sparked a wave of deadly violence carried out by pro-Indonesian militias.

Habibie served just 17 months in office, withdrawing from the October 1999 presidential election amid the continuing protests.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Leeds Times.

More Information

Europe

Section

World economic growth is 'fragile,' Lagarde says

World economic growth is "fragile" and "under threat," former International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde says, and is over-reliant on ...

San Francisco-based company opens new EMEA headquarters in Dublin

DUBLIN, Ireland - Nitro, a global company specialising in document productivity solutions, has opened a new EMEA headquarters in Dublin.Centrally ...

Van Dijk: 'Everyone wants to beat us'

Cape Town - Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has urged his team-mates to focus on bouncing back to winning ways ...

Top Italian coach wants job in the PSL

Cape Town - Italian coach Fabio Lopez has come out and said that he wants a job in South Africa, ...

Hockey India announces 20-man squad for Belgium tour

New Delhi [India], Sept 20 (ANI): Hockey India on Friday announced a 20-man squad for the upcoming Belgium tour. India ...

Molefi Ntseki chats to Sport24

Cape Town - In an exclusive interview, newly-appointed Bafana Bafana coach MOLEFI NTSEKI talks about the state of SA football, ...

International

Section

World economic growth is 'fragile,' Lagarde says

World economic growth is "fragile" and "under threat," former International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde says, and is over-reliant on ...

Saudis claim sources close to Iranian regime responsible for attacks

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The government of Saudi Arabia says the attacks on its Saudi Aramco oil infrastructure on Saturday ...

Vietnam, Fastest-Growing Carbon Polluter

HO CHI MINH CITY - Carbon emissions are growing faster in Vietnam than any other country in the world, according ...

Rights Groups Urge Release of Journalists in Eritrea

In 2002, newspaper editor Aaron Berhane fled his home country of Eritrea for security reasons, after his paper criticized the ...

Cameroon Courts Paralyzed as Lawyers Strike Over HumanRights Violation

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Cameroon's law courts are at a standstill as lawyers for a third day Wednesday defy government threats ...

Proponents of war causing carnage on unprecedented scale

Proponents of war the world over are causing carnage on an unprecedented scale with most of the casualties being civilians.War ...

Movie Review

Steamboat Bill, Jr. [Blu-Ray]