13
57.
According to the inspection and study of ballistics and explosives by the Office of
the Prosecutor General of the Nation
[H]aving compared a number of the fragments recovered in the course of judicial inspections
at Santo Domingo and in the autopsies carried out on some of the victims of the explosions of
December 13, 1998, with the component parts of the AN – M1A2 bombs in the cluster
munition, there was found to be a consistency and match in their morphology and
dimensions, in particular the iron rings that encase bombs of this type lengthwise. By the
same token, other aluminum and tin fragments recovered at the scene […] correspond with
the head or nose of the AN – M1- A2 fuze […] 38
58.
According to a test carried out by the Technical Investigative Corps (CTI) of the
Office of the Prosecutor General, cluster munitions have limited precision but great antipersonnel
power, since the bombs burst into countless pieces of shrapnel that spread out in all directions. 39
59.
The persons who died as a result of the cluster munition were Jaime Castro Bello
(4), Luis Carlos Neite Méndez (5), Egna Margarita Bello (5), Katherine (or Catherine) Cárdenas Tilano
(7), Oscar Esneider Vanegas Tulibila (12), 40 Geovani Hernández Becerra (14), 41 Levis Hernando
Martínez Carreño, Teresa Mojica Hernández de Galvis, Edilma Leal Pacheco, Salomón Neite, María
Yolanda Rangel, Pablo Suárez Daza, Carmen Antonio Díaz Cobo, Nancy Ávila Castillo (or Abaunza),
Arnulfo Arciniegas Velandia (or Calvo), Luis Enrique Parada Ropero, and Rodolfo Carrillo. 42
60.
With regards to Leonardo Alfonso Calderón, who was named as an alleged victim in
Report on Admissibility 25/03 of the Inter-American Commission, according to the domestic criminal
proceeding, he was a volunteer soldier who was killed "as a result of the action of firearm
38
Annex 6. Office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation, Inspection and study of ballistics and explosives,
extended opinion, working group BA-0066/2000, April 28, 2000. Appendix B.2 to the petitioners' brief received at the
IACHR on October 28, 2003.
39
Annex 4. Judgment of the Twelfth Criminal Court of the Bogotá Circuit with functions under Law 600 of 2000,
Judgment at First Instance, Case 2005-102, César Romero Pradilla et al., September 24, 2009, p. 64. Appendix 2 to the
State’s brief of October 5, 2010, received at the IACHR on October 6, 2010. It transpires from the judgment that on August
12, 2003, the CTI carried out a targeted launch of two cluster munitions, which made it possible to confirm: “i) that the
precision of these devices is limited, given that only one of the bombs that comprised them hit the paved road, the
predetermined target, while the rest fell on either side of the road, with one even falling many meters away from the rest;
and, ii) that they have enormous antipersonnel power, as could be seen by the dense, black cloud of smoke that arose when
the bombs hit and fragmented into countless pieces of shrapnel that spread out in all directions, passing right through
wooden structures and even metal markers, leaving craters in the ground and oxidized tails similar to those found in the
judicial inspection conducted on December 17, 1998, in the village of Santo Domingo.”
40
Annex 4. According to the Judgment of the Twelfth Criminal Court of the Bogotá Circuit with functions under
Law 600 of 2000, Judgment at First Instance, Case 2005-102, César Romero Pradilla et al., September 24, 2009, p. 76,
Oscar Esneider Vanegas was 12 years old when he died. Appendix 2 to the State’s brief of October 5, 2010, received at the
IACHR on October 6, 2010. See, also, Annex 7. Disciplinary Chamber of the Office of the Procurator General of the Nation,
Case 161-01640 (155-45564/2000), December 19, 2002. Appendix to the petitioners’ brief received at the IACHR on
August 21, 2006.
41
Annex 4. According to the Judgment of the Twelfth Criminal Court of the Bogotá Circuit with functions under
Law 600 of 2000, Judgment at First Instance, Case 2005-102, César Romero Pradilla et al., September 24, 2009, p. 76,
Geovani Hernández Becerra was 14 years old when he died. Appendix 2 to the State’s brief of October 5, 2010, received at
the IACHR on October 6, 2010. See, also, Annex 7. Disciplinary Chamber of the Office of the Procurator General of the
Nation, Case 161-01640 (155-45564/2000), December 19, 2002. Appendix to the petitioners’ brief received at the IACHR
on August 21, 2006.
42
Annex 4. Judgment of the Twelfth Criminal Court of the Bogotá Circuit with functions under Law 600 of 2000,
Judgment at First Instance, Case 2005-102, César Romero Pradilla et al., September 24, 2009, p. 76. Appendix 2 to the
State’s brief of October 5, 2010, received at the IACHR on October 6, 2010. See, also, Annex 7 Disciplinary Chamber of
the Office of the Procurator General of the Nation, Case 161-01640 (155-45564/2000), December 19, 2002. Appendix to
the petitioners’ brief received at the IACHR on August 21, 2006.