ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the intersections between gender, torture, and the visual dynamics of violence perpetrated by the Indonesian security forces during the occupation of East Timor (1975–1999). We situate our discussion within the context of atrocity images more broadly, and use this literature to consider the ethics of analysing visual materials created by perpetrators, both as evidence of their crimes and as artefacts that bear witness to atrocity. Within this chapter, we focus on a small selection of torture photographs from East Timor that feature women and teenage girl victims. We argue that the highly gendered and sexualised forms of torture being perpetrated and displayed in the photographs were essential components of performing, documenting, and commemorating these acts. These processes of production and consumption, we suggest, reveal an explicitly visual dimension to the gendered violence practised by the Indonesian security services throughout the 24-year military occupation of the territory.
