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Wahid Impeachment Being Pushed
Indonesian legislators resolved to push ahead with an impeachment drive against President Abdurrahman Wahid next month, ignoring his call for talks Monday and rejecting his latest threat to impose emergency rule.
Irate after several parties boycotted a meeting he called in a bid to end the political crisis, Wahid warned he would dissolve the nation's two legislative houses and rule by decree unless his opponents abandoned their impeachment effort by July 20.
Unmoved by the new ultimatum, the national assembly decided at a late-night meeting that impeachment proceedings would go ahead as scheduled, starting Aug. 1. It said they would start immediately if Wahid tried to avert impeachment by taking action against the 700-member body.
Wahid set the July 20 deadline Monday after he was forced to cancel political negotiations when members of his own minority party were the only ones to show up for the talks at an ornate palace 35 miles south of Jakarta.
Facing a mounting challenge for months, Wahid has threatened before to declare a state of emergency, but has never carried out the threats.
The military and police have repeatedly said they would ignore Wahid's orders to enforce emergency rule, even though he is commander in chief. On Monday, some senior officers expressed doubts that he would go through with his latest threat.
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