the petition was lodged within a reasonable time and that this admissibility requirement has been satisfied. 3. Duplication of international proceedings and res judicata 55. Nothing in the case file indicates that the substance of the petition is pending a decision in any other international settlement proceeding or that it is substantially the same as any other petition already examined by this Commission or another international body. Hence, the requirements set forth in Articles 46.1.c and 47.d of the Convention have been met. 4. Characterization of the alleged facts 56. The State asks the IACHR to declare inadmissible the petitioners’ claims regarding the involvement of the then commander of Army Brigade XVII in the planning and perpetration of the incidents described in the petition and the fact that currently no state agent is under investigation by the domestic courts. Specifically it holds that in the case at hand “the Commission may not admit the petition in order to review the preclusion” ordered in singleinstance criminal trial No. 5767 regarding the actions of Brigadier General Rito Alejo del Río Rojas, serving as the commanding officer of Army Brigade XVII during 1996 and 1997. 57. It should first be pointed out that the mechanism provided by Articles 44 to 51 of the American Convention is not intended to establish the individual criminal responsibility of those persons who, acting either as civilians or as state agents, might have been involved in the commission of a crime, but rather to establish the State’s responsibility for violating the American Convention and other applicable instruments. It would, thus, be inappropriate for the IACHR to invoke those mechanisms in order to overturn a decision adopted domestically by an investigating agency. Having said that, examining and determining whether state responsibility is involved in a given incident requires considering whether the organs and agents acting within the scope of state authority have made the State responsible by failing to take the steps necessary to ensure the persons under its jurisdiction the rights that the American Convention protects, in particular as regards the due legal clarification of violations of irrevocable basic rights. 58. The arguments of the parties indicate that the possible responsibility of state agents in the torture and murder of Marino L��pez, and in the forced displacement of hundreds of Afrodescendants, in conjunction with illegal armed groups from the AUC and ACCU, is one of the disputed matters in the case at hand, which should be dealt with when the merits of the claim are examined. Similarly, the actions and omissions of the judicial system in determining the criminal responsibility of state agents – already a cause for concern to the IACHR on account of its monitoring of precautionary measures MC 70/9932 – should also be examined in the following phase. 59. The Commission therefore believes that the petitioners’ claims regarding the death of Mr. Marino López and the forced displacement of the members of the 22 communities of African descent that inhabited the River Cacarica basin as a result of the actions carried out between 32 It should be noted that on August 13, 2001, the Commission published a press release expressing its concern at the resignation within the office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Colombia that followed on from the reactions to the arrest of retired army general Rito Alejo del Río Rojas, at that time named in several investigations for serious human rights violations during his time as the commanding officer of the Army’s XVII Brigade. The Commission said that “the lack of support for the decision of the National Unit of Human Rights of the Prosecutor’s Office to enforce the arrest of General del Río Rojas caused the forced resignation of its Director, Pedro Díaz Romero and the release of the General. The Commission has also learned that judicial and disciplinary procedures might have been instituted against the members of the Unit and the Technical Corps of Investigations (TCI) that participated in the investigation and the corresponding detention.” The Commission expressed “its serious concern for the above related events which, by inhibiting and restraining the task of the Unit, restrict the independence and efficacy of the administration of justice and the battle against impunity in Colombia.” The Commission said in that press release that it had extended precautionary measures, in accordance with Article 25 of its Rules of Procedure, on behalf of the former Director of the National Human Rights Unit, a number of prosecutors belonging to it, and members of the TCI, and that it had spoken to the State to request that it adopt the measures necessary to protect their physical integrity and that of their families and to avoid any reprisals against members of the Unit for acts undertaken in the legitimate exercise of their functions. IACHR, Press Release, “IACHR concerned for changes in the National Human Rights Unit in Colombia,” August 13, 2001, available at http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2001/Press21-01.htm. 13