BOGOTA, Colombia (AP):
COLOMBIA'S BIGGEST paramilitary army, long feared throughout much of the country, has completely disbanded with the demobilization of its last two active blocs. But renegade factions continue to exist, peace commissioner Luis Restrepo said yesterday.
"All the blocs of the AUC have demobilised, the group has come to an end," Restrepo said.
More than 1,700 fighters from the Heroes of the Llanos and the Heroes of Guaviare blocs handed over 850 weapons in a disarmament ceremony Tuesday in the central province of Meta.
The two were the last to have laid down their weapons as part of a 2003 peace deal between the government and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, that has led to the demobilisation of more than 28,000 fighters.
But smaller, dissident blocs outside the main organisation's control continue to operate, including in north-western Colombia and the eastern plains.
In addition to the dissident bands, a number of new illegal armed groups have been formed by drug traffickers.
The government will not recognise these new groups, Restrepo said.
"We only recognised those groups that were already established as paramilitaries when we sat down to begin negotiations, groups that had established histories," the official said. "These new groups are a problem for the police; they are criminal gangs."
Human rights organisations have complained that the government has been too lenient with the paramilitary group that has committed some of the worst atrocities in this country's four-decade civil war, including dozens of massacres of civilians.
Most of the fighters will not serve any jail time and leaders who oversaw huge drug-trafficking operations and the killing of thousands face a maximum jail term of just eight years, with the chance to cut their prison time still further.
The paramilitaries were formed by landowners and drug-traffickers in the 1980s as a vigilante force to fight leftist guerrillas who controlled much of Colombia's countryside.
Human rights groups have documented extensive links between parts of the armed forces and the paramilitaries.
In 2001, the US government listed the paramilitaries as a "foreign terrorist organisation" and has since issued a number of extradition warrants for its leaders for drug-trafficking.
