Indonesians grapple over whether to forgive ex-dictator Soeharto

"They put it on my legs and my hands. Every time they didn't like my answer, they used the electric shock," Mugiyanto told AFP.
According to the group Mugiyanto heads, the Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI), 23 dissidents were arrested in the final days of Suharto's regime. Mugiyanto is one of only nine accounted for.
As he lies ailing in hospital, the man who ruled Indonesia ruthlessly for 32 years has become an object of sympathy for many people here, despite the massive human rights abuses of his regime and graft that bled the economy of as much as 35 billion dollars, according to watchdog Transparency International.
Current president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- Indonesia's first-ever directly elected leader -- cut short a visit to Malaysia on January 12 when Suharto's condition deteriorated, and sounded a conciliatory note.
"The achievements and works that he carried out were not small things, especially like national development, even though as a human being, and like other leaders, Pak Harto had some deficiencies and made some mistakes," Yudhoyono told a press briefing on his return.
Pak Harto is how Suharto is referred to with a mixture of affection and respect.
Some calls for forgiveness have been ..