5
during an on-site visit to Peru by the Commission [the Commission decided] to approve
Resolution 1/91 and notify it immediately to the Government, in the person of its Minister
of Foreign Affairs, during the course of that visit [and that] no impediment or legal or
regulatory provision exists that would prevent the Commission, wheresoever it might be
meeting and provided it has the necessary quorum to decide, from adopting resolutions
on matters that fall within its jurisdiction and that affect the fundamental rights of
persons, as is true of this case and others in which analogous decisions have been made.
13.
On September 28, 1992, the Government filed a supplementary brief
regarding the preliminary objections interposed, on the grounds that the facts and
circumstances referred to in the certification of the Secretariat dated June 23, 1992,
required the amplification and adaptation of the original brief. The President decided
to submit it to the consideration of the Court during the session beginning January
25, 1993. By Order of January 26, 1993, the President, in consultation with the
Court, decided not to allow the brief to expand the scope of the preliminary
objections because “the proceeding would be reopened, the steps already taken at
the appropriate time would be infringed and, furthermore, the procedural balance
and equality of the parties would be seriously affected.”
14.
On January 29, 1993, the Agent of the Government appealed the above order
to the full Court, which confirmed its decision by Order of January 30 of that same
year.
II
15.
According to the petition of November 17, 1988 presented to the Commission,
an armed group of the “Sendero Luminoso” movement ambushed a Peruvian Army
military convoy in Erusco, an annex of the District of Cayara in the Province of Víctor
Fajardo, Department of Ayacucho, on May 13, 1988. Four members of Sendero
Luminoso, one Army captain and three soldiers were killed in the fighting. On the
following day, Army troops entered the village of Cayara and murdered the first
person they came across (Esteban Asto Bautista, according to the petition). They
later came to the village church, where they found five more men who were taking
down a platform; they shot them point-blank (Emilio Berrocal-Crisóstomo, Patricio
Ccayo-Cahuaymi, Teodosio Noa-Pariona, Indalecio Palomino-Tueros and Santiago
Tello-Crisóstomo, according to the petition). Later still, when the men of the village
returned from the fields, the soldiers killed them with bayonets and farm tools (in
Ccehuaypampa). The soldiers then buried the dead in a neighboring site (David
Ccayo-Cahuaymi, Solano Ccayo-Noa, José Ccayo-Rivera, Alejandro Choccña-Oré,
Artemio González-Palomino, Alfonso Huayanay-Bautista, Ignacio Ipurre-Suárez,
Eustaquio Oré-Palomino, Zacarías Palomino-Bautista, Aurelio Palomino-Choccña,
Fidel Teodosio Palomino-Suárez, Félix Quispe-Palomino, Dionisio Suárez-Palomino,
Prudencio Sulca-Huayta, Emiliano Sulca-Oré, Zózimo Graciano Taquiri-Yanqui,
Teodosio Valenzuela-Rivera, Ignacio Tarqui-Ccayo, Hermenegildo Apari-Tello,
Indalecio Palomino-Ipurre, Patricio Ccayo-Palomino, Ildefonso Hinostroza-Bautista,
Prudencio Palomino-Ccayo and Félix Crisóstomo-García, according to the petition).
On May 18, 1988, during the military intervention in Cayara under the command of
General José Valdivia, Head of the Security Sub-Zone of the Central Region
corresponding to Ayacucho, the Army had detained Alejandro Echaccaya-Villagaray,
Samuel García-Palomino and Jovita García-Suárez. The bodies of these persons
were subsequently exhumed in Pucutuccasa by the Chief Prosecutor, Carlos Escobar,
acting on information given by some peasants on August 10, 1988. According to the
petition, between 28 and 31 persons had been murdered on May 14; it was difficult