Images

The nine gruesome and explicit photos show the four blindfolded Timorese actually being tortured. One youth is being beaten with an iron bar and kicked in the neck, another is being strung up with a rope after being beaten, a third is receiving what appears to be an electric shock, and a fourth is being held on the ground, probably after being beaten.

There are obvious blood-stains on the walls, on the victims and around the site of the mass grave and it is evident that the victims underwent extreme suffering at the hands of the Indonesian military.

It is presumed that the photographs were either taken by the Indonesian military for their records, or as a Indonesian "souvenir" of their exploits. There are also photos of torture victims being buried in a mass grave. The victims are probably the same youths depicted in the torture photos who died as a result of the tortures.

The photos were received from reliable contacts in East Timor, whose identity cannot be disclosed, for obvious reasons. The photos came from the Ainaro district, about 100 km to the south of Dili, the capital of East Timor. As there was heavy military activity around Ainaro in January 1995, it is believed that that photos were most likely taken in Ainaro at that time.

The East Timor Human Rights Centre is continuing in its efforts to identify the torture victims and to establish when and where the tortures took place. The Centre will also send the photos to Amnesty International and the United Nations, calling on them to investigate the tortures depicted in the photographs.

Victim 1 being beaten with iron bar

Victim 1 being kicked in the neck

Victim 2 strung up by rope after beating

Victim 3 probably being given electric shock

Victim 3 being choked

Victim 4 being held on the ground, probably after being beaten

Torture victims being dragged into grave

Torture victims being dragged into grave

Mass grave being filled after burial of torture victims