9
prevent access to justice and to obstruct compliance with the Orders of the Court
concerning the investigation and punishment of those responsible for serious human
rights violations, in the terms of the conventional obligations agreed upon by the
States […].
27.
That based on what has been informed by the parties, the Court considers it is
necessary that the State, in its next report, provides further information regarding the
measures it has adopted in order to gather evidence which allows to progress in the above
mentioned investigation and, should it be the case, in the filing of an appeal for review. In
that sense, it considers that it is indispensable that Colombia forwards thorough and
updated information regarding the investigation started at the Unidad de Derechos
Humanos de la Fiscalía General de la Nación [Human Rights Unit of the National Solicitor
General], taking into account what has been indicated herein and in the observations made
by the Inter-American Commission and the representatives in their respective briefs.
*
*
*
28.
That regarding the obligation to locate the mortal remains of the victims and the
delivery thereof to their next of kin (fourth operative paragraph of the Judgments of
reparations and costs), the State informed that after the Court Order of February 6, 2008,
the Fiscalía General [Solicitor General], with the cooperation of the “Judge for Civil and
Criminal cases of San Alberto […], of the [Investigation Technical Center] and a specialized
team, performed two exhumations at the ossuaries of San Alberto Magno Parish in San
Alberto, on February 21, 2008 and on June 11, 2008”, with negative results. At present the
State is taking the steps necessary to locate the spot where the victims were possibly buried
and it shall continue to make its best efforts in order to find the mortal remains of Isidro
Caballero-Delgado and María del Carmen Santana.
29.
That the representatives pointed out that, even though the search proceedings were
effected in January, February and June, 2008, they have not yielded positive results. Among
other reasons, that was due to the lack of an organized and systematic search plan,
according to the report of the Cuerpo Técnico de Investigación [Technical Team of
Investigation, hereinafter referred to as CTI, pursuant to its Spanish acronym] dated
September 19, 2008. They reminded the problems of the search performed in January
2008, such as the lack of credibility in the declaration of the witness who contributed with
search elements as well as the non-compliance with the CTI recommendations. They stated
that the proceedings were not in conformity with the patterns of both international and
national protocols such as the National Search Plan elaborated by the Comisión Nacional de
Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas [National Commission for the Search of Disappeared
Persons]. On the other hand, they informed that on August 14, 2009, the case prosecutor
delegated the responsibility of the search process to the Centro Único Virtual de
Identificación [Virtual Identification Center], an organization which supports the Justice and
Peace Unit and the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office. Consequently, the
representatives expressed their concern on the fact that the search activities are not
coordinated or supervised by the permanent assessment of the prosecutor in charge of the
investigation. Additionally, they expressed that there have been obstructions to the
participation of the civil party in the search proceedings such as, for instance, the lack of a
timely summons so that it may attend in the proper conditions. Finally, they argued that it
is critical that the existing mechanisms such as the National Search Plan are used in the
search activities, and that a methodological search plan be developed with the support of
the CTI in order to find the disappeared victims.