12 58. On December 9, 1981 there were skirmishes with the guerrillas a few kilometers from El Mozote. On December 10, troops of one of the Atlacatl Battalion companies arrived in El Mozote after bombardment by the Salvadoran Air Force. 59. Late on December 10, 1981 members of the five Atlacatl Battalion companies 39 appeared . According to testimony received by the Tutela Legal, the soldiers took people out of their houses, including the people who had gathered at the home of Marcos Diaz, forcing them to lie facedown on the ground and questioning them as to whether there were any guerrillas in the zone. People were stripped of their belongings and ordered to return home and lock themselves in, and “not to stick 40 their nose out”, for otherwise they would be shot. 60. At around 5 a.m. on December 11, 1981 the soldiers took all the people from their houses, and herded them together in the village square. There were several hundred people, including men, women and children and older people. In the square the soldiers ordered them to form two lines, one for men and the other for women and children, telling them they would have to stay there until it was decided what to do with them. Two hours later, the people were divided into two groups, one for men and 41 older children, and the other for women and younger children. 61. At 8 a.m. began the mass execution of the people gathered in the square. The available information indicates that the first to be killed were those in the place known as “the chapel”, mainly men 42 and older boys . According to the testimony of Rufina Amaya: The next morning, December 11, 1981, at five o’clock, the soldiers came back and took out all the people, numbering about 800, including men, women, children and older people, and took them to the village square, in front of the “chapel”. When all the people were there, the soldiers ordered them to form two files, one for men and the other for women and children, telling them that they would stay there until it was decided what to do with them. They stood there until seven in the morning, when they were ordered to regroup, with the men in the chapel and the women and children in the house of a Mr. Alfredo Marquez, who had abandoned his home some days earlier. At that time, in the place where the people were forming a file, a helicopter of the Salvadoran Air Force landed and after half an hour that helicopter took off again and three minutes later several soldiers entered where the women were (including me) asking them whether they were guerrilla collaborators and if they knew where the men kept the weapons. They replied that they had no be killed.” See statement by Rufina Amaya to the Tutela Legal, October 10, 1990 (annexed to the initial petition of October 30, 1990). The statement of Mrs. Rufina Amaya was also cited in a report by the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University José Simeón Cañas (IDHUCA). See IDHUCA report, Consideraciones sobre la impunidad a propósito de la masacre del El Mozote, No. 451 of November 7, 1990. 39 Tutela Legal, op. cit. 40 Tutela Legal, op. cit. According to Rufina Amaya: “on December 10, 1981, at around 10 a.m., we began to hear heavy mortar fire, bombardment and machine gun fire on the outskirts of the village of El Mozote, from aircraft and helicopters of the Salvadoran Air Force. When they heard this, people hid under their beds and tables, with their children who were weeping with fear. The explosions continued until four in the afternoon. On that same day, at 6 p.m., a great number of properly uniformed soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion arrived by land, there were too many to count. The soldiers had with them several captives (those soldiers took this group of people and led them to the street in front of the shop of Marcos Diaz, and then those same soldiers took all the people out of their houses and out of the shop and made them all lie on the ground, face down, asking them if there were guerrillas around. The people said no, and then the soldiers said they were going to register them, and took all their rings, necklaces, money and other things that they had. After the soldiers had taken everything that people had with them, they told them all to go and barricade themselves in their houses and to stay there, warning them that they should not even stick their nose out of doors, because if they did they would be shot. So this is how they spent the night, with no sleep, and with the children crying from fear and hunger.” See statement by Rufina Amaya to the Tutela Legal, October 10, 1990 (annexed to the initial petition of October 30, 1990). The statement of Mrs. Rufina Amaya was also cited in a report by the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University José Simeón Cañas (IDHUCA). See IDHUCA report, Consideraciones sobre la impunidad a propósito de la masacre del El Mozote, No. 451 of November 7, 1990. 41 Tutela Legal, op. cit. 42 Ibid