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JAKARTA - The health of Indonesia's ex-president Suharto has improved slightly but the 86-year-old remains dependent on a slew of machines and in critical condition, his doctors said Wednesday.
Suharto was admitted to hospital last week with anaemia and low blood pressure, as well as problems with his heart, kidneys and lungs. He slid into critical condition, and has since improved and relapsed several times.
"The condition of Suharto this morning is still weak, but he is conscious. It is better than yesterday (Tuesday)," said Marjo Soebiandono, one of the large team of doctors assembled to treat the former president.
He said the results of heart examinations on Tuesday showed that some damage had been sustained to the organ's tissue and that "a general weakening has taken place".
"The catch-22 is that the heart, the lungs and the kidneys are all weak so that bodily liquids accumulate," he told a press briefing, adding that installing a new pacemaker would allow the heart to strengthen as a first step.
Doctors have said that Suharto must stabilise before they can perform such an operation. In the meantime, the patient remained on dialysis and was continuing to receive blood transfusions, Soebiandono said.
"For the time being, he is still dependent on machines... We hope to slowly disconnect these," he added.
Djoko Rahardjo, a urology expert, told the briefing that Suharto's bodily fluids had built up on Tuesday when he was taken off dialysis for tests on his heart, causing swelling and a general worsening in his condition.
"We tried to overcome this by taking off as much liquid as possible... Suharto's recovery is still dependent on machinery absorbing his bodily liquids and on medication," he said. "We are assessing his condition by the hour."
Rahardjo said dialysis could damage red blood cells so transfusions were being given to overcome that, but there was no internal bleeding from other causes.
Suharto held Indonesia in an iron grip for 32 years until bloody street riots and protests amid an economic crisis forced him to step down in 1998.
He has been accused of siphoning off billions of dollars in state assets to his family and cronies while in power, as well as trampling over human rights, particularly in areas that had restive separatist movements, such as East Timor, Aceh and Papua.
Persistent poor health over the past decade, during which he has lived largely as a recluse at his family residence in a leafy Jakarta suburb, meant that a criminal corruption trial against him was dropped in 2006.
Efforts to bring Suharto to justice for the alleged human rights abuses have also floundered, largely due to the difficulty of collecting evidence that he directly ordered abuses.
But Suharto is still the target of a civil lawsuit, with the government seeking 1.4 billion dollars worth of damages and returned assets allegedly accrued through a charitable foundation that he chaired while in power.
Indonesia's attorney general on Monday rejected calls by Suharto's allies for the civil case and others being investigated to be dropped.
Despite his ignominious fall, Suharto still wields considerable influence among Indonesia's elite, with a stream of well-wishers rushing to his sick bed since his admission to hospital.
His health decline however has not had any impact on markets here.
The Jakarta Post reported Wednesday that the Indonesian military had prepared five planes to eventually carry Suharto's remains, family and other mourners back to the family cemetery in Central Java.
"It is just preparations made by the TNI (military) so that it will be able to do its duties once ordered to do so by the government," military spokesman Sagom Tamboen told the newspaper. - AFP/ir
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