Asian newspapers wrote a cold but grateful epitaph for Indonesia?s former President Suharto yesterday, giving him credit for keeping the fractious nation intact but regretting that the task cost so much blood.

Across Asia, dailies reacted to the news of the ex-general?s death, from organ failure on the day before, with a critical distance that was lacking from some of its press during his 86 years.

?Suharto?s autocratic rule, over more than three decades, was marked by rampant corruption, cronyism and widespread human rights abuses,? Malaysia?s New Straits Times said in a front-page commentary alongside the banner headline: ?A legacy divided?.

Before Suharto was ousted in 1998, regional newspapers commonly portrayed him as a strong, autocratic ruler who had helped to keep the nation ? 230 million people sprawled across a chain of about 17,000 islands ? together and stable. But his reputation as a unifying force finally began to unravel in the late 1990s, when Indonesia plunged into a violent economic crisis, bubbling with racial violence, resurgent separatist movements and the real threat of regional instability.