Colombia´s paramilitaries halt confessions, plunging peace process into crisis

Source: CCTV.com | 07-26-2007 16:40

Colombia's peace process with its far-right paramilitary has plunged into crisis after jailed militia warlords have halted confessions to prosecutors.

The paramilitary is fuming over a Supreme Court decision this month to reject the 2003 peace pact. And deprive those disarmed paramilitary's special benefits under the agreement.

President Alvaro Uribe, trying to defuse the latest crisis, has criticized the court's ruling. He said he will introduce new Congressional legislation to restore some of the benefits.

Uribe said, "They gain nothing with their threats to halt the process. They must abide by the peace process, the state must also fulfill its end of the bargain."

Uribe's attempts to salvage the process has enraged victims. Under the Justice and Peace Law which governs the peace process, the 70,000 victims who have come forward with reparation claims..are to be compensated directly by the demobilized militias. But officials say the warlords have surrendered only a sliver of their vast fortunes.

According to the National Commission of Reparations and Reconciliation, representatives of 200 victims have received death threats since the inception of the peace process and 15 have been murdered.

Editor:Du Xiaodan