2 Articles 1, 2 and 6 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture and Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions. The Commission also requested the Court to call on the State to identify and punish those responsible for the violations mentioned above, to adopt the "necessary reforms to the training programs and regulations of the Guatemalan armed forces so that military operations are conducted in conformity with the laws and customs applicable to internal conflicts", and to compensate the next of kin of the victim for the violation of the said rights, in conformity with Article 63(1) of the Convention. In its final arguments, the Commission also requested the Court to declare that Article 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture had been violated. II COMPETENCE OF THE COURT 3. The Court is competent to hear this case. Guatemala has been a State Party to the Convention since May 25, 1978, accepted the obligatory jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987, and ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture on January 29, 1987. III PROCEDURE BEFORE THE COMMISSION 4. The Inter-American Commission opened case No. 11.129 as the result of a complaint filed by the petitioners on March 5, 1993, regarding a request for precautionary measures, based on the detention and mistreatment inflicted on [Efraín] Bámaca [Velásquez] and other combatants of the URNG [Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit (hereinafter “the URNG”)]”. This request was repeated in a communication of April 6 the same year. 5. On March 17, 1993, the petitioners sent a memorandum on the exhaustion of domestic remedies. Two days later, they forwarded the Commission information on the rejection of the petition for habeas corpus filed before the Supreme Court of Justice in favor of Bámaca Velásquez and other URNG combatants. On August 24 and October 4, 1993, the petitioners sent the Commission further information on the case. On October 5, 1993, the Commission granted the State 30 days in which to submit its observations on all the documents that had been forwarded to it. 6. On March 31, 1993, the Commission officially opened the case based on the complaint made by the petitioners. On June 10, July 19 and August 19, 1993, Guatemala requested extensions for providing information on the case. On October 12, 1993, the State submitted the information requested. 7. On October 4, 1993, the Commission held a public hearing so that Guatemala could present information on the precautionary measures. On October 15, 1993, the Commission reiterated to Guatemala that it should adopt precautionary measures in favor of the persons named in its communication. On December 15, 1993, the State declared that, in this case, the precautionary measures were "unnecessary and not in order because there were no prisoners of war or clandestine detention centers in Guatemala.”