CCPR/C/115/D/2048/2011 9.3 The Committee observes that it is not disputed that Ermin Kadirić was apprehended and taken from his house by VRS soldiers, that Ms. Kadirić saw that her husband was captured and subjected to severe ill-treatment over a number of hours together with other men and that, at a certain point, the soldiers ordered the captured men to run and started to shoot at them. One and a half days later, Ms. Kadirić left the house and located Ermin Kadirić’s dead body among the others. Nonetheless, she was not able to recover his mortal remains at that time, as she had to run away to protect herself from snipers. Upon her return, the body had been removed. The authors’ accounts were also confirmed by the statements of two witnesses presented by Ms. Kadirić before the Municipal Court in Sanski Most in the proceedings carried out to declare Ermin Kadirić dead (see para. 2.6 above). Despite the authors’ efforts to recover their relative’s remains and their requests for an investigation to the authorities of the State party, the location of Ermin Kadirić’s body remains unknown. 9.4 Although the acts of VRS are not directly attributable to the State party, the Committee notes the authors’ claim that these acts, together with the subsequent removal and concealment of Ermin Kadirić’s remains, were committed in the State party’s territory by VRS and that the State party remains under an ongoing obligation to locate, exhume, identify and return the victim’s mortal remains to the family, as well as to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible for the crimes concerned. In this connection, the Committee recognizes the particular difficulties that a State party may face in investigating crimes that may have been committed on its territory by hostile forces. Therefore, while acknowledging the gravity of the alleged crimes and the suffering of the authors resulting from the State party’s failure to locate the remains of their missing husband and father and bring the culprits to justice, that in itself is not sufficient to find a breach of article 2 (3), of the Covenant in the particular circumstances of the present communication. 9.5 That being said, the authors claim that, at the time of the filing of their communication, more than 19 years after the alleged events concerning Ermin Kadirić took place and more than 2 years after the judgement of the Constitutional Court of 13 May 2008, the investigative authorities have not contacted them for information regarding the location of his mortal remains. On 14 December 2010, Dino Kadirić applied to the Constitutional Court and requested it to adopt a ruling establishing that the authorities had failed to enforce its decision of 13 May 2008. On 22 March 2011, the Constitutional Court informed the authors that it considered the judgement to have been enforced, without providing any reason for that conclusion and in spite of the fact that no effective action had been carried out by the authorities in the case of Ermin Kadirić. The State party has provided general information as to its efforts in searching for the remains of missing persons and prosecuting perpetrators. Nevertheless, it has failed to provide the Committee with specific and relevant information concerning the steps taken to pursue the investigation into the arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and extrajudicial execution of Ermin Kadirić and to locate his mortal remains and return them to his family. The Committee further observes that the authorities have provided very limited and general information to the authors regarding their relative’s case. The Committee considers that authorities investigating certain violations, such as torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, summary and arbitrary killing and enforced disappearance, must give the families a timely opportunity to contribute their knowledge to the investigation, and that information regarding the progress of the investigation must be made promptly accessible to the families. It also takes note of the anguish and distress caused to the authors by the continuing uncertainty resulting from the removal and concealment of their relative’s remains. Accordingly, the Committee concludes that the facts before it reveal a violation of articles 6, 7 and 9, read in conjunction with article 2 (3), of the Covenant with regard to Ermin Kadirić; and of article 7, read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3), of the Covenant with regard to the authors. 15