Sack Sukarno Demands

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31178, 30 September 1966, Page 13

Sack Sukarno Demands

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyrtoht» DJAKARTA, September 29. Attacks on President Sukarno are mounting as authorities prepared to try his right-hand man, the former Foreign Minister, Dr. Subandrio, on charges of helping stage the abortive Communist coup last October.

Student groups, newspapers and former servicemen joined in demanding that Sukarno be sacked and that his ties with Indonesia's Communist Party be investigated.

Dr. Subandrio, who played a major part in binding Indonesia closer to China, is scheduled to go on trial for his life on Friday, the first anniversary of the coup attempt. Speculation has arisen as to whether he would give testimony involving Dr. Sukarno in the Communist plot or whether he would refuse to say anything about his former chief in the hope that the President still has the power to save him.

A Moslem newspaper in Djakarta carried banner headlines charging that President Sukarno was the leader of the coup attempt.

The newspaper has run a series of articles purporting to show how the President helped the party rise to power. It claimed that he is still giving secret instructions to the underground remains of the party, which is now outlawed. An influential group of former servicemen called on the new Cabinet to put an end to the dual powers shared, at least in theory, by Dr. Sukarno and the Army’s strongman, General Suharto.