Defense minister denies plans of government coup

Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro denied allegations that a group of retired generals have secretly supported hard-line groups to overthrow President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"No, there's no such thing. And such a thing may not happen in Indonesia," he said on Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera recently reported that the retired generals were backing extremist groups to incite violence to remove the President, whom they deemed too weak.

"We have tools that allow us to monitor developments in the field," the minister said.

He added that Yudhoyono had not been too weak or too reformist, as alleged.

According to Purnomo, the President’s stances were in line with the growing democracy in the country.

"Even if there are [efforts to overthrow], we will face them," he said.