PARAMILITARY FACTION DISARMS

MEDELLIN -- After a minute of silence in memory of the thousands killed in
Colombia's conflict, 800 fighters from an urban band of a right-wing
paramilitary group laid down their weapons on Tuesday in a ceremony the
government says could bring the country closer to ending its 39-year-old war.

The ceremony was choreographed by President Alvaro Uribe's government and
it clearly did not mean the end of the United Self-Defense Forces. But it
did suggest the authorities may be making headway in their new two-pronged
strategy to end the war: Co-opt the right, defeat the left.

Uribe hopes the laying down of arms will represent the first step in the
demobilization of a 13,000-member federation of paramilitary factions --
known as the United Self-Defense Forces -- which is planned as a two-year
process.

If successful, it would be the first time in Latin America that a far-
right, anti-guerrilla force has demobilized through a formal process before
the end of a conflict. The government's hope is that this will put pressure
on two rebel groups that are the paramilitaries' longtime adversaries --
the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and National Liberation
Army -- to negotiate peace accords.

"Today, after a long stretch, we have a first important accomplishment,"
Luis Carlos Restrepo, Uribe's top negotiator with insurgent groups, told
rows of young fighters in Medellin's convention hall. "Welcome to civilian
life."

The ceremony, involving a Medellin faction called Cacique Nutibara, was
carefully prepared. Inside the convention center, the young men -- their
heads shaved, holding rifles at their side and wearing newly pressed
camouflage fatigues -- sang the national anthem.

Then they formed long rows and laid down their AK-47s, sawed off shotguns,
old carbines and revolvers -- fewer than 200 weapons in all. Reporters were
boxed off to the sides, barred from interviewing the fighters.

A videotaped greeting from three top paramilitary commanders played on a
giant television screen. The three -- Carlos Castano and Salvatore Mancuso,
both of whom have been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking
charges, and Diego Fernando Murillo, a reputed cocaine lord who heads
Cacique Nutibara -- hailed the moment as the start of a new bid for peace.

After the ceremony, the young men were bused to the town of La Ceja,
outside Medellin. They are to stay at a recreation center for three weeks,
and then enter job training or educational programs.

Critics including human rights groups and some U.S. congressmen condemned
the disarmament as a half-baked process that would let mass murderers and
cocaine traffickers go free. They said the demobilization would not weaken
the paramilitary group, with top commanders remaining free to recruit and
to oversee operations.

"There's no transparency and no accountability," said Jose Miguel Vivanco,
who is Americas director for Human Rights Watch. "How can we trust this
process? Not a single international agency is participating."

Uribe is pushing legislation that would allow the government to strike
deals with the leaders of the Self-Defense Forces, with the paramilitaries
disarming in exchange for incentives that include suspended jail time for
top commanders.

Those who demobilized on Tuesday did so under legislation allowing
insurgent groups to demobilize and members to be reincorporated into society.

With support of the military, landowners and cocaine trafficking, the
United Self-Defense Forces has grown, its member groups controlling of wide
swaths of territory and wiping out villages and killing union organizers
and leftist politicians.