5 However, due to the force of the General Amnesty Law for the Consolidation of Peace, as well as repeated omissions by the Salvadoran State, these serious events remain unpunished. To date, the massacres have not been judicially clarified, nor have any sanctions been established, even when a significant number of perpetrators have been identified by various sources, including the report of the Truth Commission, ‘From Madness to Hope’ (De la Locura a la Esperanza.) As the IACHR stated in its merits report, it is an urgent duty of the State of El Salvador to settle the historical debt with the memory of the victims, the surviving nextof-kin, and with society at large, who after almost 30 years of the occurrence of the facts, have not been able to know the truth and to obtain justice through the punishment of those responsible for these crimes against humanity. As a result of the above, the IACHR’s offers the following expert declarations on the mentioned aspects that concern the inter-American public interest, and in accordance with Article 35(1)( f) of the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Court: 1. Expert whose name will be informed soon, who will refer to the context of armed conflict in El Salvador, especially in the time to which the facts of the case refer. The testimony will refer to the human rights violations occurring during said time, including the massive and indiscriminated attacks against the civilian population and the modus operandi followed under the “tierra arrasada” operations. 2. Michael Reed Hurtado will testify about the General Amnesty Law for the Consolidation of Peace, its background, scope and effect as a factor in the impunity for crimes against humanity committed during the conflict by the Salvadoran Armed Forces. Also, the testimony will refer to attempts at interpretation by the Supreme Court of Justice, the effects of such interpretations, as well as the internal mechanisms to render ineffective the abovementioned law. 3. Tal Linda lleen Simmons who will testify about the internationally accepted parameters to be observed in the conduct of exhumations in cases such as this, as well as an analysis of the exhumations conducted internally in the light of these standards. The curricula vitae of the experts proposed by the Inter-American Commission are attached. The representatives of the victims in the filing before the Inter-American Court are the Office of the Legal Guardianship of the Archibishopric (Oficina de Tutela Legal del Arzobispado) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). The Commission informs the Court that after the notification of Merits Report 177/10, the representatives provided some details about the list of victims and added the names of new victims. In accordance with what is stated in the present note about the flexible criteria of the identification of the victims, the Commission considers that the dimension and nature of the violations that occurred in this case, people added by the representatives should also be regarded as victims. Finally, the Commission informs the Court that the information available about the representatives is: Office of the Legal Guardianship of the Archibishopric of San Salvador

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