treatment; inter alia, he must not be subjected unnecessarily to the torture entailed by the fact of awaiting death. in accordance with the provisions of articles 7 and 10 of the Covenant. The Human Rights Committee is responsible for ensuring that the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are not violated as a consequence of the execution of a sentence. I therefore emphasize that the Committee must examine the circumstances on a case-by-case basis. The Committee must establish the physical and psychological conditions to which the condemned person has been subjected in order to determine whether the behaviour of the Government authorities is The Committee must therefore establish whether the laws and actions of the State, and the behaviour and conditions of the condemned person, make it possible to determine whether the time elapsed between sentencing and execution is reasonable and, on that basis, that it does not constitute a violation of the Covenant. These are the limits of the Human Rights Committee's competence to determine whether there has been compliance with, or violation of, the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Communication No. 612/1995 Submitted by: José Vicente and Amado Villafañe Chaparro, Dioselina Torres Crespo, Hermes Enrique Torres Solis and Vicencio Chaparro Izquierdo [represented by counsel] Alleged victims: José Vicente and Amado Villafañe Chaparro, Luís Napoleón Torres Crespo, Angel María Torres Aroyo and Antonio Hugues Chaparro Torres State party: Colombia Declared admissible: 14 March 1996 (fifty-sixth session) Date of adoption of Views*: 29 July 1997 (sixtieth session) Subject matter: Arrest and subsequent disappearance of indigenous community leaders by State party’s military forces are all members of the Arhuaco community, a Colombian indigenous group, residing in Valledupar, Department of Cesar, Colombia. It is submitted that they are victims of violations by Colombia of articles 2, paragraph 3; 6, paragraph 1; 7; 9; 14; and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. They are represented by a lawyer, Mr. Federico Andreu Guzmán. Procedural issues: Exhaustion of domestic remedies Substantive issues: Enforced disappearances and right to life - Unlawful and arbitrary detention - Duty to investigate enforced disappearances - Torture The facts as submitted by the authors Articles of the Covenant: 2 (3), 6 (1), 7, 9, 14 and 27 Articles of the Optional Protocol and Rules of procedure: 4, paragraph 2, and 5, paragraph 2 (b) 2.1 On 28 November 1990, at about 1 p.m., Luís Napoleón Torres Crespo, Angel María Torres Arroyo and Antonio Hugues Chaparro Torres boarded a bus in Valledupar for Bogotá, where they were scheduled to attend various meetings with government officials. The same day, at about 11 p.m., José Vicente Villafañe and his brother, Amado Villafañe, were arrested by soldiers from the No. 2 Artillery Battalion “La Popa” stationed in Valledupar. Lieutenant-Colonel Luís Fernando Duque Izquierdo, Commander of the Battalion, had issued a warrant to search the Villafañe brothers' houses, ordering that the search be carried out by Lieutenant Pedro Fernández Ocampo and four soldiers. The search warrant had been authorized on the basis of military intelligence to the effect that the two men were members of a support unit for the Guerrilla Group ELN (“Ejército de Liberación Nacional”), and that they were storing arms and Finding: Violation [articles 6, 7 and 9] 1. The authors of the communication are José Vicente Villafañe Chaparro and Amado Villafañe Chaparro, filing a complaint on their own behalf, and Dioselina Torres Crespo, Hermes Enrique Torres Solis and Vicencio Chaparro Izquierdo, acting on behalf of their respective deceased fathers, Luís Napoleón Torres Crespo, Angel María Torres Arroyo and Antonio Hugues Chaparro Torres. The authors * In accordance with rule 85 of the rules of procedure, one member of the Committee, Mrs. Pilar Gaitan de Pombo, did not take part in the adoption of the Views. 135