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JAKARTA : Former Indonesian President Suharto was to undergo several medical tests on Thursday as the health of the 86-year-old remained critical, one of his doctors said.
Suharto, who held Indonesia in an iron grip for 32 years until he was forced to step down a decade ago, 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.
"Still critical," Marjo Soebiandono, one of the large team of doctors assembled to treat the former president, told reporters before going to see him.
He said Suharto's various organs were still not functioning optimally.
Doctors were to conducts more tests and take X-rays of Suharto's thorax, Soebiandono said without elaborating.
On Wednesday, Soebiandono said Suharto's heart, lungs and kidneys were still weak and doctors were continuing blood transfusions to push up his haemoglobin count.
Suharto's doctors also said he remained dependent on machines, including a dialysis machine.
In Jakarta, Vice President Jusuf Kalla held prayers at his official residence late Wednesday that were attended by more than 100 members of the Golkar Party he chairs and which was Suharto's political vehicle during his rule.
Prayers were also held in several areas elsewhere in the nation, the SCTV private television station reported.
Suharto oversaw the transformation of Indonesia's economy from a poor backwater to a powerhouse by the 1990s, but his rule was marred by allegations of massive corruption and widespread human rights abuses.
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.
Suharto remains however the target of a civil lawsuit, with the government seeking US$1.4 billion worth of damages and returned assets allegedly accrued through a charitable foundation that he chaired while in power.
However Suharto still wields considerable influence among Indonesia's elite, with a stream of well-wishers rushing to his sickbed since his admission to hospital. - AFP/ch
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