57 134.9. in December, 1996, the State of Guatemala and the representatives of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) signed the peace accord “Acuerdo de Paz Firme y Duradera,” with the aim of ending the armed conflict. Said Accord validated the twelve agreements reached during previous negotiations. One of these, signed in Oslo, Norway, on June 23, 1994, referred to “the establishment of the ‘Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico’ to elucidate the human rights violations and acts of violence that have caused suffering to the Guatemalan population.” This truth-finding committee rendered its report on February 25, 1999;46 134.10. from the second half of the 1980s until the formal end of the armed conflict in 1996, there were selective extra-legal executions in Guatemala with the aim of “social cleansing” to “exterminate those whom [the State] deemed enemies,” that is, all those individuals, groups or organizations that, allegedly, worked to break down the established order.47 Through the systematic practice of arbitrary execution, “agents of the State physically eliminated their opponents, while they also sought to repress, silence, and control the population as a whole, through terror, both in the urban and in the rural areas;”48 134.11. selective arbitrary executions, in general, were operations carried out by the intelligence bodies of the State and they had common patterns and characteristics. First, they identified the individual or individuals who would be the target of the intelligence action. Subsequently, they gathered detailed information on that person, monitored the individuals’ communication, and followed the person to establish his or her daily routine. The information obtained was evaluated and interpreted, with the aim of planning the operation. The staff who would participate, their functions, who would be responsible, the vehicles and the weapons to be used would be established, as well as whether the operation would be public or clandestine. The orders were verbal and there were no written records of the decision or of the planning, so as to ensure the covert nature of the operation;49 “Guatemala, memoria del silencio,” volume II, pages 20 to 145 (file with annexes to the application, annex 52.3, leaves 1052 to 1115). 46 Cf. “Acuerdo de Paz Firme y Duradera,” signed on December 29, 1996 by the Government of Guatemala and the representatives of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG); and report by the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, “Guatemala, memoria del silencio,” volume I, page 23. 47 Cf. expert opinions of Mónica Pinto, Iduvina Hernández and Katharine Doyle rendered before the Court on February 19, 2003; report by the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, “Guatemala, memoria del silencio,” volume II, pages 339, 317 to 368 and volume I, pages 193 to 201; and report by the Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, “Guatemala: Nunca Más: los mecanismos del horror,” volume II, pages 1 to 47. 48 Cf. report by the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, “Guatemala, memoria del silencio,” volume II, page 356; testimony by Helen Mack Chang and Lucrecia Hernández Mack rendered before the Court on February 18 and 19, 2003; and expert opinions of Mónica Pinto, Iduvina Hernández and Katharine Doyle rendered before the Court on February 19, 2003. 49 Cf. expert opinions of Mónica Pinto, Iduvina Hernández and Katharine Doyle rendered before the Court on February 19, 2003; report by the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico, “Guatemala, memoria del silencio,” volume II, pages 337 to 339; Report by the Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, “Guatemala: Nunca Más: los mecanismos del horror,” volume II, pages 189 to 190.