“I”,400 with multiple bullet wounds.401 During the operation, squad eight of the Delta Strike Force was responsible for rescuing hostages in that room (supra paras. 155 and 156).402 321. The circumstances under which they died, and the question of whether their deaths incurred international responsibility for the State are matters that remain in dispute. The Commission and the representatives maintain that they were in the power of agents of the State at the time they were shot in room “I”. 322. The Commission draws on the following items of evidence to reach its conclusions in Report on the Merits No. 66/11: (i) the testimony of Hidetaka Ogura states that these members of the MRTA were alive and surrounded by military personnel who outnumbered them; that is, they had been neutralized, and Herma Meléndez Cueva was pleading for their lives; (ii) even though the official story says that the two guerrillas were armed, the report on identification and removal of the bodies makes no mention of their being armed or that any weapons were found near the bodies; (iii) a member of the explosives deactivation unit, who later entered the room while the MRTA members’ bodies were still present, said that they had died without putting up any resistance, as he did not see “any weapons near them at all, and besides, the positions of their bodies suggest the same thing;” (iv) the many bullet wounds these members of the MRTA received to vital parts of the body bear out the use of the selective instinctive shooting technique, whose purpose is to eliminate the enemy rather than neutralize, even following surrender; it should be emphasized, in this regard, that Herma Luz Meléndez Cueva took 14 shots, seven to the head, one to the neck and six to the thorax, and Víctor Salomón Peceros Pedraza received nine bullets, six of them to the face and chest; (v) eyewitness statements by the soldiers involved are inconsistent as to which person or persons may have shot the MRTA members, nor do they explain how these guerrillas had come in through the hallway, as it was already under the control of the commandos; and (vi) the State did not proceed immediately to perform timely, complete autopsies after the incident, nor has it conducted a conscientious, impartial, effective investigation of the facts. 323. The representatives weighed the following items of evidence: (i) the judicial case file contains the statement by Ogura, but holds no statements by any other hostages who were present in the same room and could have seen what happened; Cf. Record of identification and removal of the bodies of MRTA guerrillas found in the residence of the Japanese ambassador, April 23, 1997 (evidence file, volume I, annex 6 to the case submission brief, folios 120 and 121). See also: ruling by the Third Special Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima, October 15, 2012 (evidence file, volume XX, annexed to the representatives’ observations on the State’s preliminary objections, folios 13581 to 13582). 400 Cf. Partial selective autopsies of the 14 MRTA members, April 23, 1997 (evidence file, volume II, annex 16 to the case submission brief, folios 759 and 760); report of forensic examinations by the Institute of Forensic Medicine on MRTA members who died at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru on August 16, 2001 (evidence file, volume I, annex 7 to the case submission brief, folios 141 and 142), and report on human remains NN1-NN4 attributed to the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, by Clyde C. Snow and José Pablo Baraybar, Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, July, 2001 (evidence file, volume II, annex 12 to the case submission brief, folios 691 to 692). See also: Expert statement delivered by Derrick John Pounder and certified before a public attestor, January 23, 2014 (evidence file, affidavits, volume XXX, folios 20821 to 20826). 401 Cf. Ruling by the Third Special Criminal Chamber of the Superior Court of Lima, October 15, 2012 (evidence file, volume XX, annexed to the representatives’ observations on the State’s preliminary objections, folio 13527). 402