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Date Set for Wahid's Impeachment Hearing
Humiliated by Parliament, Indonesia's embattled president insisted through aides Thursday that he wouldn't impose an emergency decree to block his ouster on corruption and incompetence charges. Lawmakers set an impeachment hearing for Aug. 1.
The politically isolated President Abdurrahman Wahid refused to reveal his next step even as the military cautioned him against dissolving the nation's two main legislative bodies.
An overwhelming majority in Parliament on Wednesday called on the People's Consultative Assembly, the nation's highest legislative body, to convene a special session and impeach Wahid.
Exact procedures for the impeachment hearings have yet to be determined. But Wahid will be asked to address the assembly. If its 700 members reject his defense, he could be replaced by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's founding leader, Sukarno.
The assembly, made up of the 500-member Parliament and 200 representatives of regional legislatures and social interest groups, is the same body that elected Wahid over Megawati 19 months ago after the fall of the dictator Suharto.
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