7 a) Statement by Oscar Ernesto Reyes, Coordinator of the “Proyecto de Niñez Desaparecida por el Conflicto Armado Interno en Guatemala.” He has been working on human rights issues for six years, and for four years on the search for missing children due to the domestic armed conflict in Guatemala. He has noted that some cases of missing children meet all criteria for the crime of forced disappearance. The report “Hasta Encontrarte: Niñez Desaparecida por el conflicto armado interno en Guatemala” by the Human Rights Office of the Archbishopric of Guatemala points out that 86% of the cases reported are forced disappearances. The remaining 14% of the disappearances are due to circumstances of the domestic armed conflict. In most of the cases that he is aware of, the direct perpetrator and mastermind of the facts was the Guatemalan Army, acting directly or with cooperation from the paramilitary forces that existed at the time. The report “Hasta Encontrarte” also states that the army was responsible for 92% of the cases of missing children, 3% were due to joint action of the army and the Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil, and 2% were due to the guerilla forces. In the remaining 3% of the cases, it is unknown who is responsible. With respect to the mode of operation, the report also mentions that 69% of the minors, after being separated from their parents, were taken to a military unit belonging to the Army, and they were then given out as servants to members of the army and of the paramilitary forces. Recommendation 24 of the Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio” by the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico in 1999 also concluded that the State must establish the Comisión Nacional de Búsqueda de la Niñez Desaparecida. This Committee to Search for Missing Children was set up in 2001, thanks to civil society organizations and with no participation by the State. The main obstacle faced by that Committee while carrying out its investigations has been the refusal by State institutions to open the files that contain information on the whereabouts of the missing minors taken to their facilities, all this despite the fact that the Guatemalan Constitution provides that any person may obtain information from State files, record cards or any other State records. b) Statement by Mario Alcides Polanco Pérez, Director of the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo. He learned of the forced disappearance of Marco Antonio Molina Theissen when he became a member of the Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo and, in 1989, when he met Emma Guadalupe Molina Theissen, the victim’s sister, he became even more interested. Upon his own initiative, he decided to reopen the case in 1998 by filing a habeas corpus remedy and initiating actions for the Supreme Court of Justice to grant a special inquiry mandate. The family became aware of the proceeding when this mandate was about to be issued. In 1998 he asked the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Guatemala to activate the Special Inquiry Procedure. In May 1999 the