CCPR/C/95/D/1457/2006 page 5 especially harmful to the interests of the indigenous community. This well was transferred to the Empresa Prestadora de Servicios de Saneamiento de Tacna, or EPS Tacna, part of the municipal administration. 2.6 The case file contains a copy of a letter from INADE dated 31 May 1999 addressed to INRENA, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture, as a result of an enquiry from a member of Congress. It indicates that EPS Tacna, in agreement with the former ONERN (now INRENA), had carried out an environmental impact study which had concluded that the foreseeable overall environmental impact was moderate, and that the quantity of underground water resources to be withdrawn would be less than the calculated renewable reserves as established in hydrogeological studies. 2.7 Also in the file is a copy of a letter from INRENA dated April 2000, pointing out that INRENA had not received any environmental impact study from PET and that consequently no authorization had been given for the drilling of the wells. 2.8 The author also sent the Committee a copy of a report prepared by the Ombudsman in 2000 recommending that the Executive Director of PET should submit the environmental impact study and the reports on PET activities to INRENA so that it could issue the necessary evaluation. 2.9 In 2002, the company reopened well No. 6 in order to obtain more water, whereupon the author filed a criminal complaint with Tacna Prosecutor’s Office No. 1 against the manager of EPS Tacna for an environmental offence, unlawful appropriation and damages; the complaint was dismissed by the prosecutor. On 17 September 2003, the author appealed to the Senior Prosecutor, who ordered that the wells should be inspected by the prosecutor and the police. After the inspection, Tacna Prosecutor’s Office No. 1 concluded that there was evidence of an offence and instituted criminal charges in Tacna Criminal Court No. 1 against the manager of EPS Tacna for the environmental offence of damage to the natural, rural or urban landscape, as provided for in the Criminal Code. 2.10 Approximately one year after the complaint had been filed, the judge of Criminal Court No. 1 recused himself from the case because he was married to the company’s legal adviser, and the case was referred to Tacna Criminal Court No. 2. On 13 July 2004, the court declared that the trial would not open because of failure to fulfil a procedural requirement - the submission of a report from the competent State authority, INRENA. This legal requirement provides that before the opening of a trial the competent authority must submit a report on the allegation of an environmental offence. The author maintains that although the prosecutor insisted that the preliminary investigation should go ahead, claiming that the case file contained a report from INRENA, the judge shelved the case. 2.11 On 10 January 2005 the prosecutor filed additional charges with Criminal Court No. 2, for the offence of unlawful appropriation of water under article 203 of the Criminal Code. The prosecutor claimed that the surface waters and groundwater of the Ayro area had been used peacefully in accordance with customs and usages and that by taking the water without