Probe into Police who shamed transgenders
Indonesian Police said on Sunday they would press ahead with an investigation into officers accused of publicly shaming transgender people in conservative Aceh province despite an angry protest against the probe. North Aceh Police Chief Ahmad Untung Surianata and several of his subordinates have been questioned by the Police internal affairs unit following raids on beauticians’ premises in which 12 transgender staff were detained.
Officers were said to have forcibly cut the hair of some of them and made them wear male clothing and speak in a masculine voice. Mr Surianata said at the time that mothers had complained the transgender people were teasing their sons.
“The investigation is still ongoing,” Aceh police spokesman Misbahul Munauwar told AFP. “If proven guilty of violating police conduct (rules), they may face disciplinary sanctions.” Sanctions range from a written reprimand to suspension.
The investigation into the raids sparked an angry protest last Friday amid rising anti-LGBT sentiment in the province. Prejudice against gay and transgender people has long been widespread in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population. Parliament is set to pass a long-dormant bill to make sex outside marriage, including gay relations, illegal.
The discrimination is particularly acute in Aceh on Sumatra island, the only province to be ruled by Islamic law since it was granted special autonomy in 2001.
More than 100 people - including Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf and a lawmaker - took to the streets in the provincial capital Banda Aceh in a show of support for Surianata.