2 of that instrument. The Commission also decides to publish this decision and include it in its Annual Report to the General Assembly of the OAS. II. PROCESS BEFORE THE COMMISSION 7. The petition was presented before the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on July 29, 2005, and was assigned the number P-864-05. In the petition initial development, the IACHR request additional information to the petitioners which was received on June 12 and October 4, 2006. 8. The IACHR, on February 22, 2007, forwarded the pertinent portions to the State requesting that it submit its response within a two month period. On May 29, 2007, following an extension, the State submitted its response concerning the admissibility of the petition. 9. On August 24, 2007, the Commission forwarded to the petitioners the response of the State of Colombia and requested it to submit its observations within one month. 10. On November 14, 2007, the petitioners submitted their observations, following an extension, and these were forwarded to the State on December 18, 2007, with a one month period in which to submit its observations. On January 18, 2008, the State submitted its final observations. III. POSITION OF THE PARTIES A. The petitioners Attacks suffered by Mr. Luis Gonzalo Vélez Restrepo 11. The petitioners claim that on August 29, 1996, Mr. Luis Gonzalo Vélez Restrepo, in the course of his work as a journalist and cameraman for the news program Colombia 12:30, went to the town of Morelia, Caquetá department, to cover peaceful demonstrations by peasants protesting efforts to eradicate coca leaf crops in the area. 12. They assert that on that date, a torrential rainstorm flooded the precarious peasant encampments and they wanted to cross a bridge guarded by Infantry Battalion No. 36 of the Twelfth Brigade of the National Army. As they attempted to do so, battalion troops began to fire on them, brutally beat them, and fire off tear gas to block their advance. Mr. Vélez Restrepo, who was filming the event, was intercepted by soldiers from the same battalion, who demanded that he hand over the film from his camera, while insulting him and holding a gun to his head. They state that when Mr. Vélez Restrepo refused to hand over the film, they began to beat him with their rifle butts, kick him, and yell, “Give us the damned film.” The camera was destroyed in the attack but the incident was recorded and later broadcast in Colombia and throughout the world. They indicate that this attack occurred in the context of a pattern of attacks on journalists and the impunity of the perpetrators. 13. They state that Mr. Luis Gonzalo Vélez Restrepo lost consciousness after the attack and was rushed to Hospital Inmaculada María de Florencia and subsequently transferred to the Clínica Asistir in Bogota, where he remained for two days and required an additional 15 days of convalescence at home. They assert that as a result of the attack he suffered a perforated liver, heavy blood loss, a destroyed testicle, several broken ribs, and multiple contusions on the abdomen and legs. Threats, harassment and intimidation, attempted kidnapping, and subsequent forced exile 14. They assert that the threats and acts of harassment and intimidation began a couple of weeks after the August 1996 attack on Mr. Vélez Restrepo in Caquetá. The claim that they received a series of telephone calls in which the journalist and his family were threatened with death. They added that on some occasions unknown individuals knocked on the door of the 2