Police in Indonesia's most conservative province stripped away body piercings and buzzed off spiky mohawks from 65 youths detained at a punk-rock concert because of their perceived threats to Islamic values.
The teens and young men were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for "spiritual" cleansing, local police chief Iskandar Hasan said.
After replacing their "disgusting" clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked "use it."
It was the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in this secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million people to have imposed Islamic laws.
Here, adultery is punishable by stoning to death. Homosexuals have been thrown in jail or lashed in public with rattan canes. Women are told, wearing headscarves is a must, but please, no tight pants.
Punk rockers have complained for months about harassment, but Saturday's roundup was by far the most dramatic.
Baton-wielding police broke up the concert, scattering young music lovers, many of whom had traveled from other parts of the sprawling archipelagic nation.
Dozens were loaded into vans and brought to a police detention center in the hills, 60 km from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, for "re-education."
They will be held there for at least 10 days, after which they'll be returned to their parents.
Twenty-year-old punker, Fauzan, was mortified.
"Why? Why my hair?!" he said, pointing to his cleanly shaven head. "We didn't hurt anyone. This is how we've chosen to express ourselves. Why are they treating us like criminals?"
Hasan insisted he'd done nothing wrong.
"We're not torturing anyone," he said. "We're not violating human rights. We're just trying to put them back on the right moral path."
Aceh was given semi-autonomy as part of a peace deal with Indonesia's central government after the province agreed to end a separatist struggle in 2005.
- AP
Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images
Police shave the hair of detained Indonesian punks at a police school in Aceh province on December 13, 2011
by Nurdin Hasan
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Indonesian sharia police are “morally rehabilitating” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province’s image.
Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.
“We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities,” Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, told AFP on Wednesday.
“We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent.”
Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.
Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day “moral rehabilitation” camp run by police.
A girl cried as women in headscarves cut her long unruly hair into a short bob, and some of the men groaned as their heads were shaved, according to an AFP correspondent at the camp.
Chaideer Mahyuddin / AFP / Getty Images
A group of arrested Indonesian punks are jailed in Bandah Aceh police station, December 13, 2011
“Why did they arrest us? They haven’t given us any reason,” said Fauzal, 20.
“We didn’t steal anything, we weren’t bothering anyone. It’s our right to go to a concert.”
A 22-year-old man from Medan city, who did not want to be named, said he feared he would lose his job for staying at the camp for 10 days.
“I’ve just started with a bank in Medan. I don’t even know what to tell them because I don’t know why I’ve been arrested.”
Police said the objective was to deter the youths from “deviant” behaviour.
“They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers,” Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan told AFP.
“We need to fix them so that they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour.”
A local rights activist Evi Narti Zain said the arrests breached human rights.
“What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don’t break any rules or harm other people,” she said.
Mr. Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation programme was merely an “orientation into normal Indonesian society.”
Aceh, on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.
Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.
Nearly 90% of Indonesia’s 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.
Reuters / Stringer
The detainees stand in a at the local police school, December 13, 201
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