A coup was planned last weekend in Indonesia by the army commander son-in-law of the former president, Gen Suharto, according to reports from the pro-democracy movement in Jakarta.
After President Suharto stepped down early last Friday, Lieut-Gen Prabowo, husband of Gen Suharto's daughter Titi, was relieved of his command of the strategic reserve command, Kostrad.
Another officer, the commander of Kopassus special forces also lost his command, it has been reported.
There are unconfirmed reports that Gen Prabowo was placed briefly under house arrest as part of a power struggle with the commander in chief of the armed forces, Gen Wiranto, which began while President Suharto was in Egypt. Pro-democracy sources have also suggested that the heavy hand of Gen Prabowo provoked many of the riots before the fall of his father-in-law.
Six students were shot and killed during a Jakarta campus protest during the week President Suharto was away and Gen Wiranto has blamed the shootings on a rogue army unit.
Pro-Prabowo officers and police may also yet be purged, according to Ms Carmel Budiardjo of Tapol, the London-based Indonesian human rights association. She pointed to an "extraordinary" report in a Jakarta newspaper that Gen Wiranto addressed a morale-boosting meeting of 10,000 officers in Jakarta on Monday. Gen Prabowo was not present, she said.
Although Gen Prabowo has "lost out", she said that the situation in the military appeared to be "very fluid". For the moment Gen Wiranto is "trying to prevent demoralisation and to show that there are no splits in the army".
Four generals and several other senior officers - including the national chief of police, the Jakarta police chief and the head of the intelligence agency, BAKIN, may yet be sacked, she said.
Gen Prabowo has been given a non-combat role as head of a military college outside the capital. He and Gen Wiranto were appointed only last February as Indonesia's economic crisis was escalating.
According to one e-mail report last Friday: "Prabowo tore off his insignia when he heard about his sacking. He thought that a deal had been struck for him to be appointed army chief of staff with a seat in Habibie's cabinet. We are witnesses to a major conflict within the military elite . . . The main forces behind Prabowo are from Kopassus [special forces] and some Kostrad troops."
Gen Prabowo has a reputation for brutality, particularly in occupied East Timor, where he was a lieutenant colonel in Kopassus. He is believed to be one of the main architects of the infamous 1991 Santa Cruz cemetery massacre of an estimated 270 young East Timorese.
He is known also for his hatred of the Catholic Church in East Timor. During a campaign "to cow and intimidate the population in advance of the Pope's 1989 visit numerous Timorese were rounded up, imprisoned and tortured", according to Mr Donaciano Gomes, a student activist at the time. Lieut Col Prabowo "personally tortured my friend Idelfonso Araujo, breaking his leg and his teeth", Mr Gomes said.
In 1986 Gen Prabowo is believed to have shot dead a Fretilin guerrilla commander who had been brought to him by a priest under a flag of truce.