142. The acts of violence ushered in by Shining Path and the MRTA cost many lives and much loss of property and subjected Peruvian society as a whole to considerable suffering. According to the CVR, the domestic armed conflict in Peru caused the death or disappearance of an estimated 69,280 people, distributed as follows: “46% by the PCP-Shining Path[,] 30% by agents of the State […] and 24% by other agents or circumstances (local farmer patrols, selfdefense committees, MRTA, paramilitary groups, unidentified agents, and victims of clashes or situations of armed combat).”99 143. Police and military forces engaged in the fight against the Shining Path and the MRTA also committed serious human rights violations. State security agents committed acts of arbitrary arrest, torture, rape, extrajudicial killing and forced disappearance, often against persons who had no connection with the irregular armed groups.100 This Court in earlier cases has recognized that as the conflict heightened, the systematic practice of human rights violations spread, including extrajudicial executions and forced disappearance of persons suspected of belonging to armed groups operating outside the law, such as Shining Path and the MRTA, and these practices were carried out by State agents following orders of military and police commanders.101 B. The “seizing” of the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru by members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) 144. An activity was held on the night of December 17, 1996 to commemorate the birthday of Japanese Emperor Akihito with a reception at the residence of the then Japanese ambassador to Peru, Morihisa Aoki, located in the Lima district of San Isidro. 102 Approximately six hundred people were in attendance, including Supreme Court judges, members of Congress, ministers of state, high commanders of the Armed Forces and National Police of Peru, diplomats, politicians and members of the business community. 103 145. While the gathering was underway, 14 members of the MRTA, wearing “Medic Alert” badges, emerged from an ambulance parked outside a building adjacent to the residence of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, annex 2, Estimate of total victims, p. 13, available in Spanish at www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 99 Cf. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VIII, General conclusions, pp. 322 and 323, available in Spanish at www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 100 Cf. Case of Loayza Tamayo v. Peru. Merits, supra, para. 46; Case of Castillo Páez v. Peru. Merits. Judgment of November 3, 1997. Series C No. 34, para. 42; Case of Cantoral Benavides v. Peru. Merits. Judgment of August 18, 2000. Series C No. 69, para. 63; Case of the Gómez Paquiyauri Brothers v. Peru. Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of July 8, 2004. Series C No. 110, para. 67(a); Case of Baldeón García v. Peru, supra, para. 72.2; Case of the Miguel Castro Castro Prison v. Peru, supra, para. 197.1; Case of La Cantuta v. Peru, supra, para. 80.1 and 80.2; Case of Osorio Rivera and Family v. Peru, supra, para. 53; Case of J. v. Peru, supra, para. 59, and Case of Espinoza Gonzáles v. Peru, supra, para. 51. See also, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VI, chapter 1.2. Forced disappearance of persons by agents of the State, and Chapter 1.3. Arbitrary executions and massacres by agents of the State, available in Spanish at www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 101 Cf. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VII, chapter 2.66, Extrajudicial executions at the residence of the Japanese ambassador (1997), p. 720 (evidence file, volume I, annex 1 to the case submission brief, folio 6). See also: ruling by the Third Special Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima, October 15, 2012 (evidence file, volume XX, annexed to the representatives’ observations on the State’s preliminary objections, folio 13411). 102 Cf. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Informe Final, 2003, volume VII, chapter 2.66, Extrajudicial executions at the residence of the Japanese ambassador (1997), p. 720 (evidence file, volume I, annex 1 to the case submission brief, folio 6), and ruling by the Third Special Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima, October 15, 2012 (evidence file, volume XX, annexed to the representatives’ observations on the State’s preliminary objections, folio 13411). 103