-29and considered that “it [was] possible and necessary to explore the use of other
mechanisms for the State to fulfill its duty towards the children who disappeared”
during the armed conflict and their next of kin, since this phenomenon constituted a
crime against humanity. In this regard, the Ombudsman’s Office stated that the
creation of a national tracing commission appeared to be a viable option. On March
14, 2003, the Ombudsman’s Office notified this decision to the Chalatenango Trial
Court, and gave the Public Prosecutor’s office 45 days to provide it with information
on the progress made in the criminal investigations.
48(5) On September 2, 2004, since the State authorities had not complied with the
recommendations made by the Ombudsman’s Office in the two decisions (supra
paras. 48(3) and 48(4)) or with the obligation to inform this institution about the
respective investigations, the Ombudsman’s Office issued a special report “on the
forced disappearance of the children, Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz, its current
impunity and the pattern of violence surrounding such disappearances.” In the
report, the Ombudsman’s Office described, inter alia, the pattern of forced
disappearance of children that occurred during the armed conflict and examined in
detail the impunity in the case of the Serrano Cruz sisters.
48(6) The Asociación Pro-Búsqueda has received around 721 requests to trace
children who disappeared during the armed conflict and has resolved about 246 of
them. The Asociación Pro-Búsqueda has found children in several different
situations: integrated into a family in El Salvador or abroad by adoption within the
judicial system (formal adoptions) or by de facto adoption or appropriation by
civilians and members of the Armed Forces; brought up in orphanages or in military
facilities, and it has learned of 12 cases of children who were murdered. It has found
children in El Salvador and in 11 other countries of the Americas and Europe. ProBúsqueda is investigating 126 cases of international adoption, and also cases of
alleged victims of the illicit trafficking in children.
48(7) Almost half the young people located by Pro-Búsqueda had been adopted by
families abroad; they had therefore lost their nationality, customs and traditions and,
depending on the country of their adoptive parents, they had also lost their mother
tongue. These children find meeting and re-assimilating into their biological families
very difficult. Searching for, tracing and finding the disappeared children, and also
the process of family reunification when the search is successful, is a complex
experience in the construction of the lives and identities of those found and their
families. The children who are found and their families suffer traumas and identity
conflicts. Also, in many case, those who are found avoid any emotional involvement
as a defense mechanism in the face of the suffering and changes to which they are
subjected.
48(8) In April 1999, the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda published a report in which it
indicated that “there were at least [50] orphanages operating in El Salvador during
the time of the conflict.” A document of the Salvadoran Red Cross mentioned that
the “program to provide counseling and care to [the] displaced ha[d] been
implemented most widely in Chalatenango[, … from where] they […had] brought 52
[orphaned children] ranging from new-born babies to just two of 12 years old]. For
the information of the Executive Committee, these] children [were] accommodated
in[:] the Rosa Virginia Home, the Centro de Observaciones de Menores, Tutelar de
Menores, the Guirol Home in Santa Tecla, SOS Villages […].” Most of the children
who were sent to the orphanages at that time came from the armed conflict. Some
of the approximately 52 cases of children who disappeared during the military