E/CN.4/1995/111 page 29 93. In this connection, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in its second report on Colombia, indicated that the risks involved in the existence of military jurisdiction "can be overcome with appropriate regulations for controlling any potential excesses in its use". To that end, it recommends that such regulations should explicitly exclude acts of torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances and that military judgements should be brought into line with those of the ordinary courts. In this connection, a significant step was taken in June 1994 with the adoption by the Congress of a bill on enforced disappearances, which stated that government officials involved in acts of this kind would not be tried by military courts and that due obedience could not be invoked to relieve them of responsibility. However, President Gaviria’s Government objected to these two provisions, stating that they were unconstitutional. The present Government supported the first objection regarding military jurisdiction, arguing that this question should be decided by the judges on a case by case basis. It opposed President Gaviria’s objection regarding the defence of due obedience. The Senate, however, did not follow the recommendation made by the current Government and accepted the objections put forward by the former President. At the time the present report was finalized, the bill was under consideration by the House of Representatives. 94. The Procurador General indicated the following aspects as being essential in any review of the Military Penal Code: making the judiciary more professional by separating military judges from the chain of command and from any operational responsibility; adopting the accusatory system of prosecution, through the use of military prosecutors; redefining the concepts of "act committed while on duty" and "superior orders"; making the institution of the parte civil part of military criminal proceedings; ensuring participation by the Public Ministry in the military system of justice; and the use of technical legal defence procedures for members of the armed forces being tried by the military courts. As for the Fiscal General de la Nación, he told the Special Rapporteurs that he was in favour, in particular, of an accusatory system of prosecution, as well as of having a clear definition of "military crimes". Members of the high military command, however, expressed their opposition to a reform of the Military Penal Code along these lines and found it particularly inappropriate to have judges who were independent of the chain of command. 95. Governmental and non-governmental sources said that the problems surrounding the military courts were an issue that created strong tensions in the country and that any suggestions whatsoever, even from official bodies, that military jurisdiction should be limited were met with charges that the military was being attacked and rebellion being encouraged. Disciplinary authority of the Procuraduría General de la Nación 96. In its third report on human rights, the Procuraduría General de la Nación notes that, in 1993, it received a total of 363 complaints of murder, 234 of disappearances, 227 of torture, 416 of injury, 175 of threats, 87 of ill-treatment, 12 of killings during confrontations and 2 of killings of poor people. Complaints of murder and torture increased by 18.2 per cent and 23.8 per cent, respectively, compared to 1992. With regard to decisions taken in 1993 (mostly referring, naturally, to complaints filed in 1992), the

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