APSN | Police disperse pro-LGBT rally in Yogyakarta

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Police disperse pro-LGBT rally in Yogyakarta

Jakarta Globe - February 24, 2016

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Jakarta/Yogyakarta – Yogyakarta Police shut down a rally supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at the Tugu Monument in Yogyakarta on Tuesday (23/02) afternoon, citing the failure of the group to secure the proper permits.

Yogyakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Prihartono Eling Lelakon said the rally was dispersed as protesters – identified as the Solidarity of Democracy Struggle (SPD) – had failed to secure the proper permits from police.

The rally was to challenge an opposing demonstration of hundreds of protestors from the Youth Generation of the Indonesian Islamic Front (AM FUI), which was scheduled for the same day at the city's Nol Kilometer on Jalan Panembahan Senopati. The anti-LGBT rally was just two kilometers from the Tugu Monument, where the pro-LGBT group planned to protest.

Eling said the permit had been denied to prevent the two rallies from meeting. "We don't issue the rally permit [for SDP] since it's not the right time [to stage the rally]. If the group is willing to reschedule to tomorrow morning, then we will issue the permit and give full security," Eling told reporters at the scene on Tuesday, as reported by Kedaulatan Rakyat.

The pro-LGBT group had filed for the rally permit only the day before the protest, whereas the anti group had filed a week earlier, he said.

According to a witness, pro-LGBT group members were intercepted while marching from Jalan Jenderal Sudirman to Tugu Monutment by dozens of anti-LGBT protesters on motorcycles.

"The Tugu Monument was occupied by the Islamic group members, so that the pro-LGBT group only staged the rally near the McDonalds Restaurant [on Jalan Jenderal Sudirman] and safeguarded by police personnel," a 23-year-old witness Angre Edvra told Jakarta Globe, adding that Jalan C. Simanjuntak was temporarily closed during the incident.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-disperse-pro-lgbt-rally-yogyakarta/.