3 III. POSITIONS OF THE PARTIES ON MERITS A. The Petitioners 8. The petitioners allege that for the past two decades the Department of Arauca has had to endure multiple human rights violations, including destruction of the environment, expulsion of indigenous communities for the purpose of exploiting oil, extrajudicial executions, torture, forced disappearances, and massacres allegedly attributable to the armed forces. The petitioners indicate that at the time of the events alleged in the petition, the village of Santo Domingo was a population center in a rural area of the municipality of Tame, Department of Arauca. Some 200 people lived there in approximately 48 houses situated on the side of the road that links Tame to the department capital. They say that the village of Santo Domingo was a small center of trade as well as an important social hub for the outlying rural communities. 9. The petitioners say that on December 12, 1998, an aircraft with registration number HK-2659, belonging to a company called Saviare, was sighted in the jurisdiction of the Tame municipality, Department of Arauca. The aircraft allegedly belonged to illegal armed groups. They indicate that the aircraft was intercepted by military units and with support from the Colombian Air Force (FAC) armed confrontation arose in the area and lasted for more than four days. They mention that the following morning, fearing for their safety, a number of local residents began to leave the village but had to turn back as the armed forces were bombing the area around Santo Domingo or were barring their way. 10. According to the petitioners, on December 13, 1998, between roughly 9:45 and 10:00 a.m., several FAC aircraft flew over the area surrounding the village of Santo Domingo and a helicopter with registration number 4407 launched a cluster bomb at the civilian population of the village of Santo Domingo, killing 17 civilians, including six children, and wounding 25 others. They say that the helicopter that launched the bomb then continued to shoot, with a machine gun, at the wounded and the people who were assisting them and transporting them in an open pickup truck. The petitioners allege that subsequently the pickup truck that was carrying the wounded to the hospital in Tame was chased by the same helicopter, from which FAC personnel fired on them over a distance of two kilometers. 11. The petitioners say that by the afternoon of December 13, the majority of civilians had abandoned Santo Domingo and that the village was occupied by the National Army from December 16 to 22, 1998. They note that at least seven witnesses stated that they returned to Santo Domingo the day after the Army left the village to find that it had been looted. 12. The petitioners mention that criminal and disciplinary inquiries were launched into the events and that the families of the alleged victims instituted contentious administrative proceedings to obtain direct reparation. 13. As regards criminal proceedings, the petitioners say that a preliminary investigation into the events at Santo Domingo was opened by the 118th FAC Military Preliminary Criminal Investigation Court on May 12, 1999, and that on May 20, 1999, the judge of that court closed the investigation into the FAC personnel on the basis that the crews of the Air Force aircraft involved had not acted in a way that constituted a recognized criminal offense. However, they note that on May 30, 2000, the National Human Rights Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor General overturned the order of the 118th Military Preliminary Criminal Investigation Court and ordered an inquiry into the three FAC personnel who were crewing the helicopter: César Romero Pradilla, Johan Jiménez Valencia, and Héctor Mario Hernández Acosta. It also directed that a copy of the record of the proceedings be sent to the Air Force Office of Special Military Preliminary Inquiries.