CCPR/C/60/D/612/1995
page 10
conducted by military personnel attached to Military Court No. 15 to
determine the whereabouts of Mr. José Eduardo Mattos, who had been
abducted by an insurgent group.
That, while in detention in the military barracks and in the presence of
military personnel, the Villafañe Chaparro brothers were interrogated
and tortured by Eduardo Enrique Mattos, a civilian and brother of the
abducted person. Eduardo Enrique Mattos threatened the Villafañe
brothers that he would kill indigenous people if they did not reveal his
brother's whereabouts and said, “to prove it, they were already holding
three of them” (sheet 31).
That the military operations which led to the detention of indigenous
leaders Luis Napoleón Torres Crespo, Angel María Torres Arroyo and
Antonio Hugues Chaparro Torres, on the one hand, and the
Villafañe Chaparros brothers and Manuel de la Rosa Pertuz, according to
the evidence gathered by the Human Rights Division, were coordinated
from Valledupar and almost certainly from No. 2 Artillery Battalion “La
Popa” (sheet 19).
7.3
In the above-mentioned decision of 1992, the Human Rights Division
considered, in the following terms, that the two officers' participation in
the events had been established:
“Luis Fernando Duque Izquierdo and Pedro Antonio Fernández Ocampo
took part in both the physical and psychological torture inflicted on
José Vicente and Amado Villafañe Chaparro, members of the Arhuaco
indigenous community, and on a civilian, Manuel de la Rosa Pertuz
Pertuz, and also the abduction and subsequent killing of Angel María
Torres, Luis Napoleón Torres and Antonio Hugues Chaparro” (sheet 30).
On the basis of the evidence gathered by the Human Rights Division, counsel
rejects the Colombian Government's argument justifying the delays and
standstill in the investigations.
7.4
Counsel submits that the disciplinary procedure which led to
the ordering of the two sanctions was not judicial, but administrative
in nature - a “disciplinary investigation”, which is aimed at “preserving
the orderly conduct of the public service and protecting the principle of
legality infringed by State agents who commit minor administrative offences”.
By virtue of his disciplinary powers, the Attorney-General of the Nation may,
once the disciplinary procedure has been completed, order administrative
sanctions if necessary. Private individuals cannot be parties to a
disciplinary investigation nor can they institute criminal indemnity
proceedings. Neither can persons injured as a result of an administrative
offence use the disciplinary procedure to obtain appropriate compensation for
the injury suffered. The purpose of disciplinary proceedings is not to
provide compensation for the injury caused by the behaviour of the State agent
or to restore the infringed right. In this connection, counsel refers to the
previous decisions by the Committee. 1
7.5
Counsel reiterates that domestic remedies were exhausted when the
relevant criminal complaint was lodged with the competent ordinary court and