Indonesia's Suharto conscious, breathing better

JAKARTA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Former Indonesian president Suharto has regained full consciousness and his breathing has improved to a point where he may be taken off a ventilator, doctors said on Wednesday.

A medical team has been battling to save the 86-year-old former strongman, who ruled the Southeast Asian nation for more than three decades.

Activists involved in mass protests that ended the rule of Suharto in 1998 urged authorities on Wednesday not to drop legal action against Suharto, who is accused of massive corruption.

"Suharto committed crimes against the Indonesian people, and for the sake of reform and democracy, should be brought to justice," Adian Napitupulu, head of The National Association of 1998 Political Activists, told a news conference.

With the former general fighting for his life, a debate has emerged over whether to push ahead with legal action against him for graft.

Suharto's condition took a turn for the worse on Tuesday after doctors said he had pneumonia and was developing a blood infection which could lead to blood poisoning.

But reflecting the swings in the former general's health in recent days, his health appeared to improve on Wednesday.

"He has regained full consciousness. Although he's still weak, he can respond to our requests," Mardjo Soebiandono, head of the medical team treating Suharto, told a news conference. He added that the former president had said "yes" when asked if he felt any pain.

Another doctor, Christian Johannes, said he was breathing more freely.

"Since the beginning we have been using the ventilator as a supporting instrument for him, but because he is breathing and it seems to be getting stronger we are trying to take it off slowly," he told Reuters.

Suharto was admitted to hospital on Jan. 4 suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems.

Soebiandono had said on Sunday there was only a 50-50 chance he could survive.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a news conference at the weekend this was not an appropriate time to discuss a $1.5 billion civil case against Suharto.

"When the law fails to side with the people, don't blame them if they take matters into their own hand," said Napitupulu, a prominent activist during the 1998 student protests.

He said his organisation, which claims to number around 10,000 activists, was considering to try to "take over" the hospital where Suharto was being treated in the same way activists took over the parliament building in 1998.

Another activist, Indra Parindrianto, told the same news conference that the civil suit launched against Suharto by the government should not be settled out of court.

His long rule was marked by rapid economic growth and political stability, but also saw the country experience massacres, human rights abuses and endemic corruption.

A survey of 815 people by Kompas Cyber Media, the online arm of respected Indonesian daily Kompas, said that 66.1 percent of respondents were prepared to forgive Suharto for his mistakes on the basis of his contribution to Indonesia.

But in the same survey, 61 percent of the respondents said they wanted the legal process against Suharto to be carried out.

After Suharto quit office, he was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds, but authorities later dropped the criminal case due to his poor health.

Suharto and his family deny any wrongdoing. (Additional reporting by Adhityani Arga and Harry Suhartono; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)