29 May 2017

Indonesian Police Launch Anti-LGBT Taskforce in West Java

Indonesia’s most populous province deploy a task force to investigate LGBT in the region amid crackdown on homosexuality in the country.

West Java police will deploy a specialist task force in the region to investigate LGBT activity, according to West Java police chief Anton Charliyan.

The police said the unit would include intelligence specialists and was particularly concerned with disrupting “secret parties,” according the Detik news portal.

"I hope there are no followers in West Java, no gay or LGBT lifestyle or tradition, Charliyan reportedly said. "If there's anyone following it, they will face the law and heavy social sanctions. They will not be accepted in society."

A national spokesman for the police, Setyo Wasisto, said the approach in West Java did not reflect a national strategy.

The news came in the same week as two gay men in the province of Aceh were publicly flogged police raided a gay club in Jakarta and distributed photos of suspects to the media.

A leading LGBT activist slammed his remarks, according to Reuters. “Police have a mandate to follow the law. They are not the morals police,” said Yuli Rustinawati, chairperson of Arus Pelangi, an Indonesian LGBT activist organization.