-22- He is a retired Army officer. In 1982 he was an artillery commander and his mandate was to support all units. He referred to the onset of the armed conflict in El Salvador and to the situation of the civilian population in 1982 in the zone of Chalatenango. The Armed Forces never attacked the civilian population. He referred to the damage produced in the mayors’ offices by “terrorist criminals.” He was not a member of the Atlacatl Battalion, but he was responsible for providing it with support once, in operations in the northern sector of Usulután. He does not know whether that Battalion was in Chalatenango in June 1982, neither does he know whether there had been a military operation known as “Operación Limpieza.” During the armed conflict, the Army kept a written record of its military operations, with the description of the mission, the unit or battalion responsible, the sector in which it would be carried out, and the date it would commence, as well as the procedures to follow with regard to military personnel and civilians. The witness explained the procedure followed by the Armed Forces to evacuate the “masses”; namely, the civilians who supported the “terrorist criminals” or guerrilla. Children were abandoned due to different circumstances. When the Armed Forces found a child, it attempted to find out whether it was from the area; they asked it about its family and where it lived, and they accompanied the child back to its home if this was nearby. No record was kept of such cases. Generally, in El Salvador, “a child has family or acquaintances”; therefore, a member of the family usually looked for him. Owing to the places the units were located during operations, they did not draw up lists of the people who were evacuated; they merely carried out the evacuation and handed over the people to a superior unit. When the military operation had ended, the unit or battalion prepared a report for the superior unit, in which it noted the number of civilians who had been evacuated, “so many men, women and children”; it did not record the names, but it did record that it had found a civilian population or a specific number of people and had decided to evacuate them. These reports were confidential. Nevertheless, the information could be provided orally to interested parties, although the latter could not see the written reports. He considers that the Army would continue to refuse access to these written reports The superior unit to the one that carried out the operation was responsible for handing over the people who had been evacuated to the Red Cross. Generally, the mayor or priest of the nearest village was called as a witness to the handing over to the Red Cross. From the onset of operations, the Armed Forces were given written orders to hand such persons over to the Red Cross. He believes the Red Cross personnel were responsible for making an official record of those who were handed over into their care, and for trying to find the next of kin of the children. The Red Cross received no support from any State institution in this work; it was frowned upon that any other institution should become involved. He is unaware of there being any record of civilians evacuated by the Armed Forces. Each brigade or military detachment had a “logbook” in which the duty-officer recorded the events of the day. The entry and departure of vehicles and troops were recorded. Usually, civilians were not allowed in the barracks, but in some cases they could have been taken there. In that case, the logbook would only have reflected that a child had been brought to the barracks from