(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-27 14:57

JAKARTA -- Former Indonesian president Soeharto, died in a hospital on Sunday at the age of 86, a senior police official told reporters at the hospital where he was being treated.

Soeharto has passed away at about 13:10 p.m. local time (0610 GMT) , the official said.

Soeharto had ruled Indonesia for 32 years before he was toppled by a mass riot on May 21, 1998. He faced numerous allegation of human rights violation and corruption during his rules, but in May 2006 prosecutors closed a criminal case against him due to his deteriorating health.

Soeharto was born on June 8, 1921 in the southern Javanese town of Yogyakarta but his childhood story was largely unknown.

He was the sole son from the second marriage of Javanese man Kertosudiro, who had two children from his first wife.

After his parents divorced, he was estranged to his parents and stayed with different families several times in his early life until he was adopted and raised by uncle Prawirowiharjo.

In 1940, he joined the Dutch East Indies Army and studied in a military school in the town of Gombong in west of Yogyakarta. During Japanese occupation from 1942, he had a brief spell as a police officer before joining the Japanese-sponsored militia group "Pembela Tanah Air" (abbreviated as Peta: Defenders of the Motherland).

After Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, Soeharto entered service in the Badan Keamanan Rakyat (BKR: People's Security Body), which fought against the remaining Japanese forces and struggled to prevent the Dutch colonial forces from retaking power.

Two years later, he married Siti Hartinah (died in 1996), believed to be a descendant of the Surakarta Kingdom in Central Java, and they had three daughters and three sons in the next 17 years.

In 1950s, Soeharto led military offensive against rebellions in eastern Indonesia and Islamic extremism on Java island.

He became closer to the presidency in 1965 when he led the Army to gradually take control of the country amid political chaos.

On March 11, 1966, ailing president Sukarno issued a decree that transferred most of his power to Soeharto, who by then had been promoted to lieutenant general.

A year later, Soeharto was named the acting president with founding father Sukarno highly isolated from politics and his health badly deteriorating.

On March 21, 1967, he was officially elected as Indonesia's second president only days after Sukarno's tenure was ended by the parliament.

Civil servants were banned from voting other than Golkar. The solid trio -- military, Golkar and bureaucrats -- made his power undisputed and earned him multiple re-elections in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

On May 21, 1998, he announced his much awaited resignation and since then he lived quietly in his private residence in Central Jakarta.

Under mounting public pressures, Soeharto was placed under house arrest in 2000 as the supreme court inquiry into his graft allegations began. But a team of doctors appointed by the court declared that Soeharto was medically unfit for trials.

His case was reopened in 2002 but again doctors said it was impossible for Soeharto to stand trial, citing brain damage.