during such operations are later presented to the public as guerrillas who died in combat, their corpses being dressed by the soldiers in military clothes, and guns and grenades placed into their hands.” 26 The Rapporteurs indicated that “torture and ill-treatment often take place in the context of other human rights violations, in particular summary executions or disappearances.” 27 45. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Summary and Arbitrary Executions, the evidence of the phenomenon of simulating unlawful killings of civilians as lawful killings in combat dates back to the 1980s and began occurring with disturbing frequency across Colombia from 2004.28 Said finding also coincides with that of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.29 46. Likewise, in 2008 and 2009 the Inter-American Commission noted the continuity and repetition of these practices. In the Commission’s words: As the IACHR has observed in 2008, the high number of extrajudicial executions reported led to the identification of a number of patterns followed when extrajudicial executions are committed, in particular the following: extrajudicial executions committed in the course of anti-insurgent military operations, although witnesses state that no combat was involved; in many instances, the victim is unlawfully taken into custody at his home or workplace and taken to the place of execution; persons executed or disappeared are generally campesinos, indigenous persons, laborers, youth, disadvantaged persons or community leaders; the military or police report the victims as being insurgents who died in combat; often the victims turn up wearing uniforms and with arms and military equipment of various kinds, even though, according to the testimony, at the time of their disappearance they were wearing their customary attire and unarmed; occasionally the victims are fingered beforehand by anonymous informants wearing hoods, or re-assimilated persons; at other times, the victims are selected at random; the inspection of the body is done by the same military or police force that had previously listed the victims as “fallen in combat”; the crime scene is not preserved nor is any evidence or proof; frequently the body shows signs of torture; they are stripped of personal objects and their identification papers are disposed of; the bodies are taken to places far from where the abduction occurred and there are serious difficulties locating family members to identify the body; bodies are buried as unidentified persons, even when they have been identified by family members or third persons; members of the military and police are given financial and professional incentives and rewards for producing “positives”; from the outset, military criminal courts have jurisdiction over such cases and often the Prosecutor’s Office does not challenge the military court’s jurisdiction; relatives of the victims, witnesses and human rights defenders trying to solve such cases are threatened and intimidated; the percentage of those convicted for such crimes is infinitesimal.30 26 Economic and Social Council, Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Bacre Waly Ndiaye, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1994/37 and 1994/82, E/CN.4/1995/111, 16 January 1995, para. 26. Available at: http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G95/101/73/PDF/G9510173.pdf?OpenElement 27 Economic and Social Council, Joint report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Bacre Waly Ndiaye, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1994/37 and 1994/82, E/CN.4/1995/111, 16 January 1995, para. 29. Available at: http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G95/101/73/PDF/G9510173.pdf?OpenElement 28 Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, A/HRC/14/24/Add.2, 31 March 2010, para. 10. Available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14.24.Add.2_en.pdf 29 International Criminal Court, Prosecutors Office, Situation in Colombia. Interim Report, November 2012, para. 93. http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/3D3055BD-16E2-4C83-BA8535BCFD2A7922/285102/OTPCOLOMBIAPublicInterimReportNovember2012.pdf 30 IACHR. Annual Report, 2009. Chapter IV. Colombia, para. 67. Preliminary report of the “International Mission of Observers on Extrajudicial Executions and Impunity in Colombia” made public in Bogotá on October 10, 2007. See also Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Observatory of the Colombia–Europe–USA Coordination, “False Positives: Extrajudicial killings directly [continues …]