Tag Archives: Indonesia

Reuters reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia later this year and received valuable backing from Beijing on Wednesday in a pushback to suggestions by some members that Russia could be barred from the group. The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty …

The Jakarta Post reports: Eight people in Gresik regency, East Java, were ordered by local authorities to dig graves for those who have died of COVID-19 as punishment for not wearing face masks in public. Cerme district head, Suyono, said that he punished residents who did not wear face masks by making them dig graves at a public cemetery in …

The Bangkok Post reports: Forced exorcism is a common story for gay and transgender people in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, where a conservative shift has seen the community increasingly targeted in recent years. Homosexuality is legal everywhere in Indonesia except conservative Aceh province which adheres to strict Islamic laws. But it is still widely believed that being gay …

The Jakarta Post reports: Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has reiterated the importance of praying amid the country’s ongoing battle against China’s coronavirus (COVID-19), saying that the weary public should use religion as a guiding principle in turbulent times. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Terawan answered questions regarding his previous statements in which he suggested that prayers were among reasons …

The Jakarta Post reports: In response to reports that the family of Reynhard Sinaga, an Indonesian convicted serial rapist in the United Kingdom, lives in Depok, West Java, the city’s mayor has instructed his administration to conduct raids against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Reynhard, a 36-year-old PhD student, was sentenced on Jan. 6 by a court …

Agence France-Presse reports: Several Indonesian ministries are banning pregnant, disabled, or LGBT job hunters in favour of what one called “normal” applicants, the Ombudsman said Friday, slammed as “arbitrary and hateful restrictions” by a rights group. The report comes as the world’s biggest Muslim majority country takes applications from millions of candidates who are applying for some 200,000 civil-service jobs …

Reuters reports: Indonesia is poised to pass a new penal code that criminalizes consensual sex outside marriage and introduces stiff penalties for insulting the president’s dignity – a move rights groups criticized as an intrusive assault on basic freedoms. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim majority country and has substantial Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, but has seen a …

Reuters reports: An Indonesian city has approved a bylaw to fine gay or transgender people up to 1 million rupiah ($70) for behaviour that could “disturb public order” or be considered immoral, the city’s deputy mayor said on Friday. The regulation is the latest example of a rise in government and public hostility toward the LGBT community in the world’s …

Agence France-Presse reports: A gay couple was publicly whipped in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Friday (July 13), despite an earlier pledge by officials to stop the punishment after it drew international criticism. The two men were flogged more than 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law, as a jeering crowd hurled abuse …

The Associated Press reports: Riding a tsunami of moral conservatism and anti-gay prejudice, Indonesia’s Islamic political parties appear on the cusp of a major victory: outlawing all sex outside marriage. Revisions to Indonesia’s criminal code being considered by Parliament would allow prison sentences of up to five years for sex between unmarried people. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: Indonesia’s IT Ministry says it has filed a request to Google to block around 70 LGBT social networking apps from being available to download in the country through the Google Play Store. IT Minister Rudiantara confirmed today that the ministry is unable to block the apps themselves as they are all available under Google’s platform. One of …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesia’s top court on Thursday ruled against petitioners seeking to make gay sex and sex outside marriage illegal in a victory for the country’s besieged LGBT minority. The 5-to-4 decision by the nine-judge panel of the Constitutional Court rejected the arguments of a conservative group, the Family Love Alliance, which believes Indonesia is being swamped by …

The Washington Post reports: This week, a government journal in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan announced that the country’s interior ministry had compiled a registry of “proven” gays and lesbians. The list named 319 men and 48 women, whom Tajik federal prosecutors identified in operations they called “Morality” and “Purge.” A purge — likely in the form of mass …

The Guardian reports: The reality of working in a factory making clothes for Ivanka Trump’s label has been laid bare, with employees speaking of being paid so little they cannot live with their children, anti-union intimidation and women being offered a bonus if they don’t take time off while menstruating. The Guardian has spoken to more than a dozen workers …

Reuters reports: Police in Indonesia’s most populous province plan to deploy a taskforce to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activity, a move likely to fuel concerns of a widening crackdown on the community in the Muslim-majority country. West Java police chief Anton Charliyan disclosed the plan on Tuesday as two gay men in the province of Aceh were …

ABC News reports: Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque to witness the caning, which was the …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesian police detained dozens of men including several foreigners in a weekend raid on a gay sauna in the capital, another sign of growing hostility to homosexuality in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said 141 men were detained for questioning in the raid Sunday evening on the gym and sauna in …

The Jakarta Post reports: Along with a group of hard-liners, the Pancoran Police arrested 13 men on Saturday night at an apartment block in South Jakarta for allegedly holding “a sex party”. Despite no strong evidence that the men had committed any crime, around 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) barged into an apartment in the Kalibata City …

J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed: A group of academics and activists urged the Constitutional Court of Indonesia to criminalize fornication and homosexuality on Tuesday in the latest hearing of a lawsuit that began earlier this year. The suit, which has been brought by 12 academics and activists, has already had several hearings, but captured international attention earlier this month …

From the Jakarta Post: Apparently under pressure to take preventive measures against the spread of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) propaganda through the internet, the Communications and Information Ministry is drafting a bill to ban websites that promote such activities. Ministry spokesperson Ismail Cawidu said the ministry had set up a panel that would meet to discuss the matter …