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Should I stay or should I go? Punks flee re-education

Source
Jakarta Globe - December 19, 2011

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police have recaptured two young punks, one of them a minor, who escaped "re-education" at a police camp in the hills 62 kilometers east of Banda Aceh.

Banda Aceh Police chief Armensyah Thay said Syaukani, 20, and Saiful Fadli, 17, escaped from police custody around noon on Saturday because they "missed their parents."

The two youths, along with 62 others including six women, have been undergoing forcible "re-education" since Tuesday of last week, when they were arrested without charge during a punk music concert in Taman Budaya, Banda Aceh.

"The two punk kids fooled our officers by saying they wanted to go to the toilet, but after we checked and searched for them they had gone," Armensyah told reporters on Sunday.

It is believed the two climbed a hill behind the camp and caught a ride back to the city. Armensyah said his officers had raided places in the capital where they thought the two might be hiding.

"Syaukani was captured at 11 p.m. close to Baiturrahman grand mosque, and Saiful was caught at 2 a.m. at a food stall in Setui," he said, adding that both were immediately brought back to the re-education camp by police.

After the breakout, police said they would tighten security and ensure continuous surveillance of the youths. "If they want to go to the toilet, they'll be escorted."

Armensyah said the Banda Aceh administration had asked police to continue raids searching for punks in the town, to ensure the punk community did not continue to grow in numbers.

The reasoning, Armensyah said, was that the punk ethos was at odds with the teachings of Islam. Armensyah said he did not know whether the punks would receive similar treatment on an ongoing basis.

"Maybe, if there's funding for us, we can continue their re-education on an extended basis until they're better. After that we'll hand them all over to the city government," he said.

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