Colombia disarms fighters - again

Colombia disarms fighters - again


http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1203/p07s02-woam.html
Its latest demobilization campaign is under way.

By Rachel Van Dongen | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA – High in the mountains, two hours from this famously
violent city, "Stein," a young paramilitary fighter, prepares to disarm
after three years at war.
Surrounded by 10 soldiers in fatigues, Stein, who would not give his real
name, fingers his US-made Colt rifle. He says he has dreams of becoming an
airplane pilot.


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"Since I was little, I have always liked planes," he says, wistfully
recalling the toy aircraft sent to him by his aunt, who lives in New
Orleans, when he was a little boy, untouched by Colombia's civil war.

But between then and now, his life took a decidedly violent turn. He joined
Colombia's Army at age 20, but became bored and left. He then enlisted in
the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a loose network of
paramilitary fighters formed in the 1980s to battle the leftist
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who wanted to topple the
Colombian government and install a Marxist regime.

Now, Stein says enthusiastically, he is ready to leave war behind for good.

"I want to study. I want to move forward," he says. "I want to lay down my
weapons and build myself as a person - I have goals, fixed plans."

On Nov. 25, Stein got that chance. He was one of 855 right-wing fighters who
headed out of Medellín's slums and turned in their guns as part of the first
phase of a government-sponsored peace plan.

In July, AUC commanders and national peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo
signed an agreement that would demobilize the nation's more than 13,000
paramilitary troops by the end of 2005. Mr. Restrepo and President Alvaro
Uribe say they hope the surrender of these fighters will encourage other AUC
factions to follow suit. It's the latest demobilization campaign in a
country that has tried such efforts to bring an end to the 39-year conflict
before, usually with mixed results.

'The road to peace is open'

Dressed in bright new uniforms, the former warriors gathered in Medellín's
convention center last week and bowed their heads in a moment of silence for
the thousands of war victims they helped to create. Troops heard a
videotaped message from their top commanders before literally laying down
their arms in front of Restrepo and their commanders.

"The AUC believes in the process that we are starting," AUC leader Carlos
Castaño, who is wanted in Colombia on multiple charges of murder and torture
and in the US for drug trafficking, said on the tape. "The road to peace is
open in Colombia."

But there are multiple stumbling blocks along that path. Many paramilitaries
have committed murder and massacres, and there is no consensus on what to do
with them. Uribe has proposed a controversial plan that would allow the most
violent criminals and drug peddlers to pay vague reparations rather than
jail time, sparking criticism from international human rights groups and the
US.

Furthermore, critics say the process as now configured is haphazard, with no
real way to guarantee that fighters are truly laying down their arms.
Skeptics are concerned with the safety of the paramilitaries and the fate of
civilians in territory they once controlled.

"There is no clarity about what is going to happen" once they return to
their neighborhoods, says ex-Medellín peace commissioner Luis Guillermo
Pardo, recalling the deadly experience of Medellín militias who demobilized
in 1990 and were allowed to form security companies; 100 of them soon ended
up dead. "It is very rushed. There is a lack of strategy."

José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch, based in
the US, calls the taped message from AUC leaders a "travesty."

"Instead of handing these criminals a microphone, the government should be
concentrating on arresting them and bringing them to justice," Mr. Vivanco
says.

Three weeks of adjustment

After the disarmament ceremony, the fighters were bused to La Ceja, a lush
Medellín suburb where they will spend three weeks adjusting to their new
civilian status, learning job skills, and clarifying their judicial
standing. The government claims that none of the 855 troops have committed
"crimes against humanity," so under Colombian law they will be pardoned for
belonging to an illegal armed group.

But critics question whether three weeks is enough time to turn hardened
warriors into good citizens. The history of peace processes in Colombia is
not encouraging. In 1998, former President Andrés Pastrana offered the FARC
a large chunk of territory as a site for talks, but revoked it in 2002 after
the group used it to stash kidnap victims and traffic in drugs. In the early
1990s, FARC members demobilized and formed a political party, but many of
them were killed by paramilitaries.

But Stein, sitting in a hollowed-out building filled with red AUC graffiti,
insists that this time, there is reason for hope. "Colombians aren't bad
people," he says. "I am a warrior. But we are not killing machines. The
heart of a warrior gets tired. It also needs love," he adds, saying the
first thing he plans to do once back on the streets is visit his mother,
whom he has not seen in a year and a half. "I miss my mother."

Yet he also is nostalgic about leaving the AUC behind. "I have very
beautiful memories of fighting for the farmers. Although people don't
believe it, we helped them," he says. "I feel melancholy leaving my
friends." Still, highlighting the dilemma of the entire process, he notes,
"Many of us are going to take very different paths."





" AT" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Poll: President's approval on the rise after Thanksgiving
> WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
> Tuesday, December 2, 2003
> ©2003 Associated Press
>
> URL:
> sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/12/02/national1730EST06
> 59.DTL
>
>
> (12-02) 14:30 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
>
> President Bush's standing with the public has improved since his
> surprise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq amid signs of a stronger economy
> and following congressional passage of a prescription drug benefit
> under Medicare.
>
> Bush's job approval was at 61 percent in the National Annenberg
> Election Survey conducted the four days after the holiday, up from 56
> percent during the four days before Thanksgiving. Disapproval of the
> president dropped from 41 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll
> released Tuesday.
>
> Bush visited the troops in Baghdad on Thanksgiving -- a move that even
> won praise from political opponents.
>
> Public opinion about Bush personally also improved during the
> four-day, post-holiday span, with an increase in the number who view
> him favorably from 65 percent to 72 percent. Republicans shifted from
> 83 percent with a favorable view of Bush personally to 94 percent.
> Democrats moved from 46 percent to 55 percent.
>
> Public opinion on the war in Iraq did not shift significantly,
> however. People were about evenly split on whether the war in Iraq was
> worthwhile before the holiday and afterward.
>
> Approval of Bush's handling of Iraq increased slightly, with 44
> percent approving and 53 percent disapproving before Thanksgiving, and
> people evenly split on that question now. The public view of his
> handling of the economy also shifted from a 45-51 percent split before
> Thanksgiving to a public divided almost evenly on his handling of the
> economy, 50-48, afterward.
>
> The margin of sampling error for the 789 people interviewed before
> Thanksgiving and the 847 interviewed after was plus or minus 3
> percentage points.
>
> ©2003 Associated Press
>
>



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