Indonesia ‘anti-LGBT abuses’ fuel HIV cases, says rights group
Human Rights Watch accuses authorities of ‘arbitrary and unlawful’ raids on saunas, night clubs, hotel rooms, hair salons and even private homes in a climate of ‘moral panic’
A crackdown on Indonesia’s gay community is fuelling a spike in HIV cases as at-risk people avoid prevention services or seeking treatment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
Conservative politicians and hardline Islamist groups have been increasingly vocal against the vulnerable community in recent years, while lawmakers eyed outlawing gay sex in the world’s biggest Muslim majority country.
Police conducted “arbitrary and unlawful” raids on places frequented by LGBT people including saunas, night clubs, hotel rooms, hair salons, and even private homes, HRW said.
That has discouraged some at-risk groups from accessing prevention and treatment services, according to the report titled “‘Scared in Public and Now No Privacy’: Human Rights and Public Health Impacts of Indonesia’s Anti-LGBT Moral Panic”.
As a result, HIV rates among men who have sex with other men have soared five-fold since 2007 from 5 per cent to 25 per cent, HRW said, adding that the group accounted for one-third of Indonesia’s new infections.
