Shocking video of men flogged for homosexuality in Indonesia

Police in Indonesia have set up a task force to target the gay community amid a country-wide crackdown on homosexuality.


Anton Charliyan, police chief of West Java, the country's most populous province, announced the plan on Tuesday, saying gays suffer 'a disease of the body and soul'.


It comes after two men were whipped for having gay sex in Aceh province on Tuesday, and after police arrested 141 men over a 'gay sex party' at a sauna in the capital Jakarta on Sunday.


Homosexuality is legal everywhere in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, except Aceh where it is prohibited under sharia law, which also prohibits people from dressing provocatively and stops women going out at night.


Gays across Indonesia are often targeted using loosely-worded pornography laws.


Responding to the Jakarta raid, Charliyan said: 'I hope there are no followers in West Java, no gay or LGBT lifestyle or tradition.


'If there's anyone following it, they will face the law and heavy social sanctions. They will not be accepted in society.'


He also called on members of the public to report suspicious activity to the police.


The two men in Aceh province, aged 20 and 23, were caught after vigilantes burst into their home and filmed them in bed together while abusing and spitting on them.


Charliyan said the police 'task force' would include intelligence specialists and was concerned with disrupting 'secret parties'.


A spokesman for national police said Charilyan's approach does not reflect federal policy, though he noted officers 'regularly' carry out such raids.


Charliyan's comments follow a spate of high-profile police actions against gay clubs and parties just as the country's Constitutional Court is due to rule on a petition to outlaw homosexuality and adultery.


On Sunday, police detained 141 men and released photos of some of them in varying states of undress to the media, revealing many of their identities.


Only 10 of the men have been declared suspects, five remain under investigation and 126 were released.


The police said the photos were released due to 'procedural errors'.


However, LGBT activists said the release of the images was part of a police pattern of publicly shaming of gay people.
The two Acehnese men, caned 82 times each on Tuesday, were punished in front of a crowd of more than 1,000.


In Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java, 14 gay men were arrested, tested for HIV and the results made public, Indonesian media reported.


On Tuesday, North Jakarta police chief Dwiyono took journalists through the gay club raided on Sunday.


As they climbed three floors, he pointed out a gym, a communal jacuzzi used for 'striptease' and a cluster of cubicles for sex.


'This door can only be opened if you pay 185,000 rupiah ($14) to the receptionist,' he said. 'In here, there's no change room, you just tear off your clothes and use a towel.'


Indonesian President Joko Widodo last year gave qualified support for the gay community, telling the BBC that 'there should be no discrimination against anyone'.


However, his defence minister, Ryamizard Ryacudu, suggested that homosexuality was a national security threat and part of a 'proxy war' waged against Indonesia by foreign states.


A Pew Research Center poll in 2013 found 93 percent of respondents in Indonesia disagreed that 'society should accept homosexuality'.
Indonesia's Islamist groups have long called for the criminalisation of gay sex.


The Islamic Defenders Front, the vigilante group that led huge rallies against the now-convicted Jakarta governor, has cooperated with police in curbing alleged vice for more than a decade.