remedies, the Committee noted that the victims' disappearance was reported immediately to the police in Curumani by the bus driver, that the complaint filed with the Human Rights Division of the Attorney-General's Office clearly indicated which army officers were held responsible for the violations and should be punished and that further proceedings were instituted in Criminal Court No. 93. Notwithstanding this material evidence, a military investigation was conducted during which the two officers were cleared and not brought to trial. The Committee considered that there were doubts about the effectiveness of remedies available to the authors in the light of the decision of Military Court No. 15. In these circumstances, it must be concluded that the authors diligently, but unsuccessfully, filed applications for remedies aimed at the criminal prosecution of the two military officers held to be responsible for the disappearance of the three Arhuaco leaders and the torture of the Villafañe brothers. More than five years after the occurrence of the events dealt with in the present communication, those held responsible for the death of the three Arhuaco leaders have not been indicted let alone tried. The Committee concluded that the authors had fulfilled the requirements of article 5, paragraph 2 (b), of the Optional Protocol. Arroyo and Antonio Hugues Chaparro Torres. The result of this investigation was a recommendation that the two officers should be dismissed and that Alberto Uribe Oñate, Director of the Office of Indigenous Affairs in Valledupar, should be acquitted. The decision was appealed, but, on 27 October 1992, the ruling of the lower court was upheld. – Criminal proceedings were initiated by Court No. 65 in Bogotá and by Military Court No. 15; the conflict of jurisdiction was settled in favour of the military's jurisdiction. The State party notes that a special agent was named from the Attorney-General's Office to appear in the proceedings. On 5 May 1993, the military court held that there was insufficient evidence to indict Lieutenant-Colonel Luis Fernando Duque Izquierdo and Lieutenant Pedro Fernández Ocampo (by then Captain) and that proceedings should be discontinued. This decision was upheld by the High Military Court. – Meanwhile, on 23 October 1991, Criminal Court No. 93 had ordered the case against Alberto Uribe Oñate and Eduardo Enrique Mattos to be shelved; it also decided that the case should be sent back to the Valledupar Judicial Police for further investigations. In accordance with article 324 of the Code of Penal Procedure, preliminary investigations must continue until such time as there is sufficient evidence either to indict or to clear those allegedly responsible for a crime. 5.2 It had to be decided whether the disciplinary and administrative proceedings could be regarded as effective domestic remedies within the meaning of article 5, paragraph 2 (b). The Committee recalled that domestic remedies must not only be available, but also effective, and that the term “domestic remedies” must be understood as referring primarily to judicial remedies. The Committee considered that the effectiveness of a remedy also depended on the nature of the alleged violation. In other words, if the alleged offence is particularly serious, as in the case of violations of basic human rights, in particular the right to life, purely administrative and disciplinary remedies cannot be considered adequate and effective. This conclusion applied in particular in situations where, as in the present case, the victims or their families might not be party to or even intervene in the proceedings before military jurisdictions, thereby precluding any possibility of obtaining redress before these jurisdictions. 4.3 In his reply, counsel submits that the State party's allegation that domestic remedies exist is a fallacy, since, under the Colombian Military Code, there are no provisions enabling the victims of human rights violations or their families to institute criminal indemnity proceedings before a military court. 4.4 In a further submission of 8 December 1995, the State party observes that, when ruling on the appeal against the sentence of 26 August 1993 handed down by the Administrative Tribunal in Valledupar in respect of the participation of members of the military in the disappearance and subsequent murder of the three indigenous leaders, the Third Section of the Administrative Chamber of the State Council upheld the decision of the lower court that there was no evidence that they had taken part in the murder of the three leaders. 5.3 With regard to the complaint under article 27, the Committee considered that the authors had failed to substantiate how the actions attributed to the military and to the authorities of the State party violated the right of the Arhuaco community to enjoy its own culture or to practise its own religion. Accordingly, that part of the complaint was declared inadmissible. The Committee's admissibility decision 5.1 At its fifty-sixth session, the Committee examined the admissibility of the communication and took note of the State party's request that the communication should be declared inadmissible. With regard to the exhaustion of available domestic 5.4 In the light of paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 above, the Committee considered that the authors had met the requirements of article 5, paragraph 2 (b), of the 138