TALK WITH "PUNK X" - ARRESTED INDONISIAN PUNK

"I will return to live as a punk, and I believe will always bring positive change in this life."

He is 31 years old and works in Suasta, North Sumatran Indonesia. He is a punk. And because of that he sadly no longer has that hair, or so many teeth.  Earlier this month he was enjoying a regular punk show in Aceh, Indonesia when suddenly the police showed up and arrested the audience, taking them away, taking their clothes, shaving their heads and keeping them in a camp for "re-education". A few days ago they were released. Here are his words:

We were at the gig, the band began around 10 am, when police arrived at 8 pm. they immediately broke up the event using force. Their reasons were that we even though we had a permission permit to have the gig, the government said that it was false, but it was not - they do not care about what we say.

We didn't fight back, we only defended ourselves against the police. We really could not afford trouble there, so we went in peace ... the police immediately arrested us by force, we were all persecuted. We were beaten, they beat me with a blunt object until my teeth broke.

Complete police violence -  persecution against me and many of my colleagues, we all experienced the same thing at the time of the event, broken up with violence. We were arrested and we were brought to the police station and locked up for 3 days, after that we brought to the Police School,  to teach police about something that is useful according to them.

We were forced to do military exercises like marching and running, hanging upside down,  if we didn't do it we were beaten - over half of us were fainting because it was so hard but then we were just beaten again - the next day we were taught about the laws of our country and many other things which is not possible to recall enough to go into in detail - I come from the north Sumatran city of Medan. 500km from Aceh.

There were people there with jobs who could not contact anyone to tell them where they were and lost their jobs -  the ones who went to school, I do not know what happened to them. But this event is not an isolated event, this sort of thing happens in Indonesia all the time, fuck the police! They didn't even care that the event was to raise money for kids in Indonesia that have been orphans. Just the "law". Arrested for being a "punk" - music with lyrics that express resistance and the true side of life.

Free thinking in a positive punk world is free and always, always proves it. I made new friends there, there are always people who understand punk. D.I.Y is always in my soul

When I got out -  I'm very glad to hear about all the people who wanted to help us, it's up to everyone what or how you can help us - but on behalf of everyone - we definitely appreciate it. This was a valuable experience in my life, I have proved myself caring towards the punk generation to come.

Now I am out I feel very happy to be back again, and I will return to live as a punk, and I believe will always bring positive change in this life.

My message to punks around the world -  Be a punk who proves something of the deed not from the mouth. Act, don't just talk. And to the government and the police in my country, be prepared!!!!

Big, big thanks to PUNK X  for the words - he has asked that none of this is reproduced on any mainstream or commercial websites or publications so please get in touch before copying anything! Also big thanks to my Indonesian brosef Crusty Child of DESIRE for helping me with the translation!