9 43. In its March 1993 Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Peru, the IACHR noted that in the five years prior to its publication, it had adopted 43 final resolutions on petitions reporting the forced disappearance of a total of 106 victims. The IACHR also pointed out that between 1987 and 1990, Peru 20 was the country in the world with the highest number of disappearances. 44. In various merits reports, the IACHR found that between 1989 and 1993 “there existed in Peru a systematic and selective practice of forced disappearances, carried out by agents of the Peruvian State,” and it noted that “the official practice of forced disappearances was part of the ‘fight against subversion,’ although in many cases it harmed people who had nothing to do with the activities related to 21 dissident groups.” The IACHR further concluded that during the 1990s, forced disappearances “were not seriously investigated. In practice, those responsible enjoyed almost total impunity, since they were 22 carrying out an official State plan.” In some of these cases, the Commission reported that the perpetrators of the forced disappearances sought to avoid their responsibility by presenting “certificates of release” that were either falsified or obtained through coercion and torture. Thus, the Commission said that: A variation [of forced disappearance] consisted of the authorities alleging that the victim had been released and even producing documents to show this, sometimes with a forgery of the victim’s signature, others with his or her real signature obtained under torture, when in fact the release had 23 never taken place. 45. Finally, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has established that for several years, governmental policy in Peru favored the commission of targeted killings, forced disappearances, and torture of people suspected of belonging to the insurgent groups. 24 2. Serious human rights violations in Cajatambo province during the internal armed conflict 46. According to the CVR’s Final Report, in 1985 Shining Path began carrying out armed incursions against the population of Cajatambo and the other mountainous provinces in the north of Lima 25 department. Beginning in 1987, Shining Path’s strategy in that region was to selectively annihilate authorities, attack police stations, sabotage public services, and murder local inhabitants who resisted 26 their rules of conduct. According to testimony documented by the CVR, Shining Path’s columns killed 20 Annex 15: IACHR, Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Peru, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.83, Doc. 31, March 12, 1993, Section I, Background, C. Human Rights Problems Identified by the Commission, paras. 16 and 17, available at www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Peru93sp/indice.htm. 21 Annex 16. IACHR, Report No. 51/99, Case 10,471, Anetro Castillo Pezo and others, Peru, April 13, 1999, para. 75, available at www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/98span/Fondo/Peru%2010.471.htm. Similarly, see also: Merits Reports Nos. 52/99, 53/99, 54/99, 55/99, 56/99, and 57/99, published by the IACHR in the year 1999 and available at www.cidh.oas.org/casos/99sp.htm. 22 Annex 17: IACHR, Report No. 57/99, Case 10.827, Romer Morales Zegarra and others, and Case 10.984, Carlos Vega Pizango, Peru, April 13, 1999, para. 45, available at www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/98span/Fondo/Peru%2010.827.htm. 23 Annex 16: IACHR, Report No. 51/99, Case 10.471, Anetro Castillo Pezo and others, Peru, April 13, 1999, para. 75. On April 13, 2000, the IACHR ruled on Case 10.670, which dealt with the forced disappearance of Messrs. Alcides, Julio César, and Abraham Sandoval Flores by members of the Army on January 25, 1990, in Coronel Portillo province, Ucayali department. During the processing of the case, the Peruvian State disputed the disappearance of the victims since, inter alia, the Sandoval Flores brothers had signed a “document of release.” In response, the IACHR concluded that the fact that the Army had release documents allegedly signed by the victims “cannot be sufficient evidence of that circumstance,” and it ratified the existence of a pattern of forced disappearances preceded by the signing of documents of that kind on behalf of the military authorities involved. See: IACHR, Report No. 43/00, Alcides Sandoval Flores and others, Peru, April 13, 2000, paras. 27 to 29, available at www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/99span/De%20Fondo/Peru10670.htm. 24 I/A Court H. R., Case of La Cantuta, Judgment of November 29, 2006, Series C No. 162, paras. 83 and 84; Gómez Palomino Case, Judgment of November 22, 2005, Series C No. 136, para. 54.1; and Case of Huilca Tecse v. Peru, Judgment of March 3, 2005, Series C No. 21, para. 60.9. 25 Annex 17: Final Report of the CVR, 2003, Vol. IV, Chapter 1, The Violence in the Regions, 1.6 Complementary Axes, pp. 470 to 472, available at www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php.