FORMER PRESIDENT A WAHID HOSPITALIZED IN JOMBANG

Jombang, Dec 24 (ANTARA) - Former president Abdurrahman Wahid who is also known as Gus Dur has been undergoing intensive treatment at a hospital in Jombang, East Java, but is currently in stable condition, a local Anshor Youth Movement executive said.

But although he was now in stable condition, Gus Dur's family wants him transferred to the Graha Amerta Hospital in Surabaya and this was to be done on Thursday evening, the chairman of the youth movement's Jombang district branch, Solihul Am Notobuwono, said here Thursday.

Gus Dur was examined in the Jombang hospital's emergency unit and later moved to a VVIP ward in the hospital, Solihul said without explaining what the former president was suffering from.

"Although his condition has stabilized, Gus Dur is today still lying in physically weak condition on a hospital bed," he said.

In compliance with his family's wish, Gus Dur was to be referred to the Graha Amerta Hospital in Surabaya where he could recuperate.
Meanwhile, word that Gus Dur was hospitalized had spread quickly in Jombang , especially among Islamic boarding schools in the region. As a result, many people spontaneously stopped what they happened to be doing and went to the hospital to see the ulema turned politician who is a grand-son of the founder of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Islamic mass organization in the country.

But at the hospital, security guards and doctors would not allow the Gus Dur sympathizers to approach the room where he was lying.
Apart from Islamic boarding school students and teachers, the people who wished to visit Gus Dur also included a few of Jombang's prominent ulema such as KH Irvan Soleh, KH Fadlulloh Malik, and Gus Aam who is chairman of the Anshor Youth Movement's Jombang branch.