BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia’s Congress on Wednesday approved an amnesty law to protect thousands of demobilizing Marxist guerrilla fighters from prosecution for minor crimes committed during the country’s 52-year war.

The law, a key part of a peace deal signed last month between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, will not include fighters who have committed war crimes or human rights violations.

The amnesty also applies to members of the country’s military. It is the first in a series of laws tied to the deal that will be sped through congress in hopes of reassuring rebels who are beginning to move to special demobilization zones.

The bill passed in both the Senate and the lower house, despite vociferous opposition from the right-wing Democratic Center party, whose members abstained from voting. The coalition of President Juan Manuel Santos, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this month, has a majority in Congress.

Some 7,000 FARC fighters are expected to lay down their arms over the next six months.

Rebels found guilty of serious crimes like massacres, sexual violence or kidnapping will not fall under the amnesty and will instead serve alternative sentences such as land mine removal, to be determined by a special court.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the FARC and the government said they would establish how many rebels are not eligible for the amnesty by Jan. 30 at the latest.

Other laws tied to the peace deal include rural reform, compensation to victims, removal of land mines and a United Nations-monitored ceasefire. The FARC will convert into a political party under the accord.</s>The law offers amnesty to thousands of members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who are accused of minor crimes.

It comes after an original pact with the FARC as rejected by Colombians in a popular vote because it was seen as too lenient.

Colombia specialist Joel Ross, from Verisk Maplecroft, which analyses political and economic risks, says this amnesty is not all that much tougher on the FARC than the previous amnesty deal rejected by the Colombian electorate in October.

"Those who commit serious crimes won't go to prison, but they'll have their liberty restricted. After that, they'll be able to participate in politics and even be elected to Congress. The only key changes to the law concern drug traffickers ... those with only a loose affiliation with the Farc and no political activity will not be able to profit from the law."

While Santos described the law as “historic”, former president Alvaro Uribe - from the opposition Democratic Centre party - warned it would allow criminals to be pardoned.

The Colombian Congress approved the bill on Wednesday with a large majority. It's part of a wider peace plan agreed between Bogota and the FARC in November.

This time round, however, the peace deal isn't being put to a referendum.

Ross says this is because it's too politically sensitive - with both President Santos and arch-rival Uribé positioning themselves for a tough elections battle in 2018.

"We are now entering an extremely important period over the next year or so as Santos and his coalition partners implement this peace deal. The success of the deal will determine how successful these parties will be electorally in 2018," he says.

"As we get closer to elections, we'll start to see many parties who are supporting the peace deal right now distance themselves from Santos and unpopular aspects of the deal - and we'll start to see a bit more tension within the government. All of this may result in more difficulties regarding the implementation of the agreement itself."

As part of Santos's revived peace plan, the FARC was to demobilise more than 16,000 people before the end of the year.

However Colombian media reports say that deadline has been extended to January 10 because the government has not set up the camps needed for the FARC to surrender their weapons.</s>The lawmakers in Colombia have passed a law granting amnesty to FARC rebels.

Colombia’s Congress passed a law granting amnesty to FARC rebels as part of the country’s peace deal, a development the government hailed as "historic."

"Thanks to the Congress which in a historic vote approved the amnesty law, first step toward consolidating peace," President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

The measure grants special legal treatment, amnesty and pardon to members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) accused of political and related crimes.

The Senate passed the bill 69-0, after the House of Representatives approved it 121-0.

The amnesty bill is part of the November 24 pact aimed at ending five decades of conflict.

Former president Alvaro Uribe spearheaded opposition to the peace deal after nearly four years of negotiations to end more than half a century of armed conflict.

The former president and his allies argue the deal grants impunity to rebels guilty of war crimes, giving them seats in Congress rather than sending them to prison.

After voters rejected the earlier deal by a narrow margin, the government and the FARC renegotiated it, deciding to have it ratified in Congress rather than risk a second referendum.

The conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing.

This post was syndicated from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Also, Like us on facebook</s>Three days for the set demobilization deadline of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC, Congress approved the amnesty law the guerrillas demanded be in place before submitting to the law.

According to the government, the demobilization of the FARC began weeks ago already, but this has been denied by both the guerrillas and local media.

Both media and FARC reported that the guerrillas have remained in provisional pre-grouping camps close to the designated demobilization, disarmament and reintegration camps that are monitored by the UN.

The amnesty law that was approved provides the rebels the judicial guarantees that those who are not accused of “grave” war crimes, are pardoned and reintegrated into society.

The law will now be signed off on by President Juan Manuel Santos for it to take effect.

What remains unclear is whether the FARC will now effectively demobilize, as they have cited other obstacles.

The former guerrilla organization could not immediately confirm whether the order would now be given to enter the demobilization camps and effectively surrender to the law.

According to the guerrillas and local media, in some places were the FARC is supposed to demobilize and disarm there exists no encampment and no infrastructure to demobilize or disarm.

In total, some 6,600 guerrillas and approximately 10,000 militia members are set to demobilize and disarm.

However, the apparent chaos in the setting up of the demobilization sites, delays in granting the guerrillas the promised judicial guarantees and a referendum that initially rejected the peace deal has led to the desertion of reportedly hundreds of FARC members.

The FARC’s demobilization and disarmament is part of a major, 10-year peace process that seeks to end more than 52 years of violence that has left more than 8 million victims.

While the guerrilla group transforms to become a Marxist political party, the government is set to embark on a series of political and rural reforms aimed at removing what are considered the main causes of the conflict, rural inequality and political exclusion.

Meanwhile, a transitional justice system for both guerrillas and members of the military is put in place to seek truth and justice over the mass victimization of Colombians.

Apart from the 16,600 FARC members, some 24,400 (former) state officials and 12,500 civilians who are either convicted or formally charged with war crimes will appear before this system.

The process is broadly supported in Congress with the exception of the Democratic Center party of former President Alvaro Uribe, who like the current president, is facing numerous war crime charges.

But Colombian society is strongly divided and agitated over the process that seeks to end a war the majority of Colombians were born in and, rather than in victory or defeat, ended in compromises that for many are hard to swallow.

was last modified: by</s>Bogota, Dec 29 (IANS) Not a single “no” vote was cast on Wednesday as both houses of Colombia’s Congress approved a bill granting amnesty to members of the FARC guerrilla group who lay down their arms under the peace accord signed last month.

The initiative also offers legal guarantees for police and soldiers who committed crimes in the context of an armed conflict that began in 1964, Efe news agency reported.

“With 69 votes in favour and zero opposed the full Senate approves the Amnesty Law. The bill passes now to the Constitutional Court for their review,” Senate Chief Mauricio Lizcano said on Twitter.

The lower house passed the bill by a margin of 121-0.

The amnesty applies to security force members and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters as long as they are not accused of committing offenses classified as crimes against humanity under the UN Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

More than 6,000 FARC combatants indicted for political offences including rebellion and conspiracy are expected to benefit from the measure.

In a video message, the armed forces commander, Gen. Juan Pablo Rodriguez Barragan, expressed gratitude for congressional approval of a bill “so important” to the military.

Analysts say that once the bill is signed into law by President Juan Manuel Santos, FARC fighters are likely to have more confidence about gathering in the designated demobilization zones.</s>Colombia's Congress has approved an amnesty law protecting the FARC guerrilla group from prosecution for minor crimes. The law is part of a historic peace deal signed last month ending more than 50 years of civil war....</s>Both houses of Colombia's congress have approved legislation on amnesty for leftist rebels under the government's peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to end a half century of conflict.

The measure covers most offenses committed by fighters but it does not absolve any guerrillas who committed war crimes or human rights violations during a war that caused more than 220,000 deaths and displaced nearly 6 million Colombians.

The Chamber of Deputies passed the measure Wednesday morning, and the Senate followed suit later in the day.

Amnesty was a key step in implementing the peace deal, which calls for FARC fighters to begin disarming at U.N.-monitored camps across Colombia. Officials said Wednesday that 27 demobilization sites are under construction.</s>Colombia’s congress today passed an amnesty law for FARC rebels and Colombian soldiers who committed crimes during the country’s half-century-long civil war. It’s the first, and perhaps most crucial, of several laws entailed by the peace accord that the government and the FARC signed last month.

And since Colombia’s voters rejected an earlier version of the peace deal in a referendum—in part because some thought it was too soft on the rebels—the amnesty law will be a crucial step in cementing the peace process and giving former rebels a path back into civilian life.

But some will have a price to pay first.

The amnesty law (pdf, in Spanish) allows both FARC rebels and government troops to be pardoned for certain crimes, including killing in normal combat. But it doesn’t pardon war crimes, kidnapping, sexual violence, and torture.

A tribunal, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Spanish), will investigate those crimes. The sentences it hands out—which will depend in part on whether people admit and show contrition for their guilt—could include prison. But since the tribunal’s mission includes stabilizing the peace process and making reparations to victims, it will also impose alternative sentences (Spanish), such as construction or farm work in communities scarred by the fighting—or clearing land mines.

Colombia has more land mine victims than any other country except Afghanistan. Since 1990, mines have killed or injured more than 11,000 people, 39% of them civilians. More than 60% of the country’s 1,123 municipalities have reported having mines or other munitions lying around.

During their peace talks last year, the government and FARC agreed to work jointly on de-mining (Spanish). Since then a pilot project has managed to clear mines from five of the affected municipalities; the ambitious and probably unrealistic (pdf, p. 35) goal is for Colombia to be mine-free by March 1, 2021.

Nonetheless, de-mining is a crucial part of the peace process, putting former enemies to work together on healing the country’s divides. Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, reporting on the pilot project, described (Spanish) how an ex-FARC guerrilla and a soldier collaborated on clearing an area:

…two men walked together, talking constantly, as if they were team-mates, supporting one another at every dangerous step. Where the grass was high, they had to raise their hands to point out the mined areas. The one who did that and walked in front was the same man who had strategically placed the mines to set ablaze or to kill the one who, until two weeks earlier, had been his enemy. “This is one of the areas,” said the guerrilla to the sergeant. “Good. Let’s cordon it off,” the latter responded. The sergeant explained to the guerrilla the steps required to mark out the zone, and in turn, the bomb-maker showed him why he had sown [the mine] there and the method he’d used to make and install it. It was an exchange of information that, in another era, both sides would have guarded as the most sacred of their military secrets. They sat down together with a map of the pathway, and used a pencil to mark where the killing fields were and how to recognize them. They identified three areas and, together, they went there, cordoned them off, and put up the red signs with a skull and crossbones painted in the middle: “Danger. Mines. Do not enter. Stay away.”

Various de-mining organizations are already doing this kind of work, but they have been allowed to work only with FARC fighters who have been officially demobilized, not those who are still notionally active and considered criminals. While there are thousands of demobbed rebels, it’s the active FARC members who know best where the mines are.

The amnesty law and the special tribunal should make a lot of them available to the de-mining groups, as well as letting those groups reach previously rebel-held areas. That will be a big step in repairing the deep damage wrought by the civil war.</s>Colombia’s government now knows only too well that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. In October, a referendum to ratify a painstakingly negotiated peace deal it had signed with the long-time insurgent organisation, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was narrowly defeated. A more piecemeal, less ambitious and sequenced process since then has helped Bogota notch its first significant victory in effecting the peace deal with the rebels. Now, Colombia’s Congress has unanimously approved an amnesty law granting immunity to FARC fighters from prosecution for committing minor crimes, clearing a major hurdle in effecting the revised peace accord. Those accused of major crimes will be tried by a special tribunal. The main difficulty in passing this measure was the intransigence of the leading opposition, the right-wing Centro Democratico led by former President Alvaro Uribe, who had led a vigorous campaign first against talks between the government and the rebels, later during the referendum and also when a revised accord was eventually signed and ratified by Congress on December 1. The party abstained during voting both during the ratification and when the amnesty law was introduced. The law helps overcome a key sticking point for those who voted “No” in the October referendum and who felt that the government was being too lenient with those among the FARC commanders accused of severe crimes. The law will reassure the rebels, who are moving to special demobilisation zones, marking a breakthrough in the five-decade-long civil war that has taken more than 2,20,000 lives.

Without doubt, the Nobel Peace Prize given to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos gave him the necessary ballast and international support to carry out these steps. But there are other laws to be passed, including those addressing FARC’s demands for agrarian reform and compensation to victims of the civil war. There is still some distance to go before FARC converts itself into a political party to participate in the contested polity. Amendments to the peace accord include requirements from FARC to share details about any involvement in drug production and declaration of assets. But there is a clear commitment towards peace shown by both the government and FARC, especially after the initial accord was signed. If things go as per the government’s plan, the rebels should become civilians by May 2017, culminating in the end of a process that began with negotiations four years ago.</s>The demobilization deadline for Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC has been extended to January 10 as the government has failed to set up the camps where guerrillas are meant to hand in their weapons.

The FARC was supposed to demobilize more than 16,000 people before new year’s eve as part of a peace deal to end 52 years of armed conflict.

However, the encampments that are to supposed to shelter the former guerrillas in many cases were never prepared for undisclosed reasons.

According to Medellin newspaper El Colombiano, of the five planned demobilization and disarmament camps in the Antioquia province, only one is ready. The other four do not yet exist.

“At the site where I am nothing has been done. Nothing. It’s a field and some cows,” Dutch FARC member Tanja Nijmeijer told Colombia Reports from the southwestern Cauca province where she is staying in a provisional pre-demobilization site with fellow rebels.

After weeks of claiming FARC guerrillas were moving into the so-called ZVTN sites, the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos was forced to implicitly admit on Wednesday that it had failed to prepare most these sites.

The monitoring commission consisting of a government, a FARC and a United Nations representative announced they agreed to delay the demobilization that was initially scheduled to take place in the first week of October.

“To continue the work of preparing the terrains and the construction of camps, civilian workers contracted by the government will arrive at nine sites on December 31,” said the three-party commission.

The FARC’s 180-day demobilization and disarmament process is part of a major, 10-year national peace process that seeks to end more than 52 years of violence that has left more than 8 million victims.

While the guerrilla group transforms to become a Marxist political party, the government is set to embark on a series of political and rural reforms aimed at removing what are considered the main causes of the conflict, rural inequality and political exclusion.

Meanwhile, a transitional justice system for both guerrillas and members of the military is put in place to seek truth and justice over the mass victimization of Colombians.

Apart from the 16,600 FARC members, some 24,400 (former) state officials and 12,500 civilians who are either convicted or formally charged with war crimes will appear before this system.

The process is broadly supported in Congress with the exception of the Democratic Center party of former President Alvaro Uribe, who like the current president, is facing numerous war crime charges.

But Colombian society is strongly divided and agitated over the process that seeks to end a war the majority of Colombians were born in and, rather than in victory or defeat, ended in compromises that for many are hard to swallow.

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As part of an ongoing peace process, the Congress of Colombia approves an amnesty law for thousands of demobilizing FARC rebels. The amnesty does not apply to FARC rebels who have committed war crimes or human rights violations.