Muslim Cleric Is Elected Indonesia's President

The powerful military immediately said it will support Wahid, who won this nation's first free presidential election in 44 years and was quickly sworn in. Wahid's defeated rival, Megawati Sukarnoputri, called on her supporters to respect the result.

Wahid's first gesture in the People's Consultative Assembly, the 700-member body that elected him, also was conciliatory. He took Megawati's hand and said, "I am here with you, Mega, to celebrate our victory and our democracy."

The pair then walked into the streets to try to calm violent protests by her supporters, who had assumed a Megawati victory was a foregone conclusion.

Several thousand supporters, many of them young, unemployed toughs, rampaged through the streets here into the night and clashed with some of the 40,000 security troops on duty. Three crude bombs exploded, two near the assembly and one in the heart of the hotel district, injuring 25 people. No group claimed responsibility, and the disturbances tapered off early today. News agencies reported two people were killed.

Despite Wahid's health problems--he suffered two strokes last year and underwent eye surgery this year in Salt Lake City--and the surprise of his victory, political analysts said he has the tools to be a strong and timely leader. Wahid has been propelled onto center stage just as Indonesia is making the transition to democracy after four decades of corrupt, nepotistic and often despotic rule.

"This is a man, clearly, the United States can work with," Stanley Roth, U.S. assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in Washington.

Wahid--known by the nickname Gus Dur, which combines an honorific title and a shortening of his name--is a wily political maneuverer who speaks with a voice of moral authority. He is one of the few Indonesian leaders who has built bridges to all segments of this splintered society. He has good relations with the military, which is crucial for any civilian president, and is respected by everyone from former presidents Suharto and Habibie to the students whose protests brought down Suharto's 32-year authoritarian regime last year and paved the way for democratic elections.