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Indonesia’s mentally ill abused and left to languish in shackles

Despite a law banning the practice almost 40 years ago, underfunding means that many patients are still being chained up with little or no treatment

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Legs of an Indonesian mentally ill man, shackled to his wooden bed at the Bina Lestari Mandiri healing centre. Photo: AFP

In a small faith healing centre in rural Indonesia, Sulaiman chanted in a confused fashion, tugged at a chain attached to his ankle, and shifted restlessly on a hard, wooden bench.

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The emaciated man has been chained up for the past two years, and is one of thousands of Indonesians with a mental illness currently shackled, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on Monday.

Chaining up the mentally ill has been illegal in Indonesia for nearly 40 years but remains rife across the country, especially in rural areas where health services are limited and belief in evil spirits prevail, according to HRW.

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“Nobody should have to be shackled in Indonesia in 2016 – people told us again and again that it’s like living in hell,” Kriti Sharma, disability rights researcher at the group and author of the report, told AFP.

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As well as shackling, the report listed a litany of other abuses the mentally ill face in Indonesia – sexual violence, electroshock therapy, and restraint and seclusion in often overcrowded, unsanitary institutions.

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