2. Systematic use of forced disappearance in the counterinsurgency fight 56. According to the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), the state agents involved in counterinsurgency activities adopted forced disappearance as a mechanism of deterrence for militants, potential members, or sympathizers of irregular armed groups. In its words, “[t]he effect of intimidation and the message that other members of the family or community could be also subject to the same violation, could serve as a mechanism to discourage the population from upholding its sympathy, tolerance, or complicity for the insurgent groups.”21 57. The CVR concluded that the principal objectives of forced disappearance were: i) to obtain information from the insurgents or suspects; b) to eliminate the insurgent or sympathizer while ensuring impunity; and c) to intimidate the population and force it to be on the side of the forces of law and order.22 The periods with the highest impact stemming from this illegal practice were the two-year period 1983-1984 and the five-year period 1989-1993. According to the CVR, although during the second period “the levels did not reach the levels of 1983-1984, resorting to forced disappearance as a method to eliminate members or persons suspected of belonging to insurgent organizations was much more systematic.”23 58. The CVR stated that the modus operandi of state agents consisted of: the selection of the victim, the detention of the person, internment in a place of confinement, eventual transfer to another center of internment, interrogation, torture, processing the information obtained, the decision to eliminate the person, the physical elimination of the person, the disappearance of the bodily remains of the victim, the use of state resources. Throughout the process, the common denominator was denial of the fact itself of detention and not providing any information whatsoever about what happened to the detained person.24 59. With respect to investigations about complaints of forced disappearances committed during the internal armed conflict, the CVR concluded that “most of the cases were followed by inaction or timid and ineffectual actions by the judicial branch of government and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”25 According to the CVR, that context of impunity for the crimes perpetrated by members of the security forces was aggravated by the coup d’état spearheaded by the then President Alberto Fujimori on April 5, 1992, owing to “clear interference in the judicial branch of government on the basis of massive dismissals of magistrates, provisional appointments, and the establishment of management bodies extraneous to the structure of the judicial system, in addition to the ineffectiveness of the Constitutional Court.”26 60. In a report in January 1998, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances observed that: [… continuation] www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/98span/Fondo/Peru%2010.827.htm. IACHR, Report No. 1/96, Case 10.559, Julio Apfata Tañire Otabire et al., Peru March 1, 1996, Section I. Background, available at: www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/95span/cap.III.peru10.559.htm. IACHR, Report No. 37/93, Case 10.563, Guadalupe Ccalloccunto Olano, Peru, October 7, 1993, Section I. Background, available at: www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/93span/cap.III.peru10.563.htm. 21 Final Report of the CVR, Volume VI, 1.2. Forced Disappearances, page 85, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php 22 Final Report of the CVR, Volume VI, 1.2. Forced Disappearances, page 70, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php 23 Final Report of the CVR, Volume VI, 1.2. Forced Disappearances, page 78, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php 24 Final Report of the CVR, Volume VI, 1.2. Forced Disappearances, page 84, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php 25 Final Report of the CVR, Volume VI, 1.2. Forced Disappearances, page 110, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php 26Final Report of the CVR, Volume VIII, General Conclusions, paras. 123-131, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php