By Ricky Gunawan
Rose (not her real name) has been using drugs for more than ten years. During that time, she had been arrested a number of times, and her life has been harrowing. Not long ago, she began to feel hope for the first time, when in a breakthrough decision, Indonesia’s judges decided to send her to a rehabilitation center to treat her addiction.
However, Indonesia’s rotten and corrupt judicial system dashed her hopes.
by Sara (Meg) Davis, Agus Triwahyuono, and Risa Alexander
from Harm Reduction Journal
In Indonesia, an ongoing government “war on drugs” has resulted in
numerous arrests and anecdotal reports of abuse in detention, but to
date there has been little documentation or analysis of this issue.
JANGKAR (also known in English as the Indonesian Harm Reduction
Network), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Jakarta,
surveyed 1106 injecting drug users in 13 cities about their experiences
of police abuse. Of those interviewed, 667 or 60% reported physical
abuse by police. These findings indicate the importance of continuing
efforts to promote police reform and harm reduction in Indonesia.
We’re delighted that our article on Jangkar’s groundbreaking research has been published in a peer-reviewed journal. For the full article and excerpts from the moving testimony of drug users in Indonesia, please see the Harm Reduction Journal.
[:en]The sun is setting over the palm trees, and we’re finishing up a wonderful, exhilirating and intense week in Bali for the International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP-9). For the first time, Asia Catalyst supported a delegation of 9 Chinese AIDS activists, provided translation throughout, and hosted events that brought Chinese and other Asian activists together at meetings, at workshops, and at a beach barbecue party under the stars (do you hate us yet?).
By Carol Wang
One of the programs we get the most satisfaction from is our summer Haven Project, which places Chinese AIDS advocates in more established AIDS NGOs for a few weeks to a few months. This program builds connections between AIDS activists across borders, while helping Chinese partners – who represent the first generation of civil society leaders in China – to build their skills. This weekend, the first of five Chinese colleagues will make their way to Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Thailand.
[:en]Last week I went to Jakarta with the harm reduction program director for Open Society Institute and met with a half dozen grassroots groups of injection drug users (IDU). In Indonesia, where AIDS is ravaging the country due to the rapidly-escalating use of drugs, young people have responded by starting small nonprofit groups to reach out to drug users on the street. They hand out clean needles, give advice on AIDS prevention, help people get medical care when they need it, and advocate with the local police. And they’re doing some innovative things on the human rights front, too.
