4 30. On August, 3, 2012 the Commission requested the petitioners information about close family members of the alleged victims that allegedly suffered damage due to the claimed human rights violations. Until the date of the approval of this report the Commission has not received such information. III. THE PARTIES’ POSITIONS A. The petitioners 31. The petitioners alleged that José Adrián Rochac Hernández, Emelinda Lorena Hernández, Santos Ernesto Salinas, Manuel Antonio Bonilla Osorio, and Ricardo Abarca Ayala were victims of forced disappearance at the hands of the Salvadoran army. 32. In setting the context, they indicated that for 12 years El Salvador was mired in an internal armed conflict marked by indiscriminate attacks against the non-combatant civilian population that, had a particularly strong impact on the rural population. They indicated that in order to destroy the bases of support of the guerrilla forces, the Salvadoran armed forces carried out the bloodiest operations from 1980 to 1984. In addition, they indicated that this was the period of the armed conflict in which the largest number of disappearances of children took place. The petitioners indicated that the disappearance of children was part of the strategy of “taking the water from the fish”, as one of the many forms of military repression against the civilian population, the objective of which was to cause terror through family separation. They alleged that the disappeared children were mostly from the conflict zones, where largescale military operations were under way, such as Chalatenango, Cabañas, Cuscatlán, San Vicente, Usulután, the northern part of San Miguel, Morazán, and northern and eastern San Salvador. 33. They also indicated that both the Commission and the Inter-American Court have recognized the existence of this phenomenon of disappearances during the armed conflict. They added that in effect there was a pattern of forced disappearances of children, especially from 1980 to 1983. They alleged that the forced disappearances of José Adrián Rochac Hernández, Emelinda Lorena Hernández, Santos Ernesto Salinas, Manuel Antonio Bonilla Osorio, and Ricardo Abarca Ayala were carried out in those years, and that in each case there was evidence that it was state agents who last had the children under their control for the last time, so the burden is on the State to prove otherwise. 34. With respect to Emelinda Lorena Hernández, the petitioners alleged that the disappearance occurred in the canton of La Joya, jurisdiction of Meanguera, department of Morazán, in December 1981, during one of the largest and bloodiest operations carried out by the Salvadoran army. According to the petitioners, at the time of her disappearance Emelinda Lorena Hernández was 11 months and 15 days old. 35. As for the disappearance of Santos Ernesto Salinas, 9 years old when disappeared, the petitioners indicated that on October 25, 1981, he disappeared at the hands of agents of the Salvadoran armed forces during a military operation in the canton of San Nicolás Lempa, municipality of Tecoluca, department of San Vicente, a highly conflictive zone. In addition, the petitioners alleged that Ms. Josefa Sánchez saw when members of the armed forces led Santos Ernesto and another child to an unknown destination. 36. As for José Adrian Rochac Hernández, 5 years old at the time, the petitioners alleged that his disappearance occurred on December 12, 1980, during a military operation in the canton of San José Segundo, carried out by the Air Force of El Salvador and paramilitary forces in the zone. In addition, the petitioners alleged that there are several witnesses who have testified that the child was last seen in the custody of state agents who led him to an unknown destination. 37. With respect to Manuel Antonio Bonilla Osorio and Ricardo Abarca Ayala, the petitioners indicated that they disappeared in the context of the El Calabozo Massacre, which according to the petitioners’ briefs was one of the worst massacres committed by the Salvadoran armed forced during the armed conflict. They alleged that the press articles at the time describe the abduction of children during “Operation Lieutenant Mario Azenón Palma,” in August 1982. They also alleged that on the day of the