Militia leader comes clean for peace deal

ONE of Colombia's most notorious right-wing commanders testified in a Colombian courtroom yesterday as part of a peace deal that supporters claim will help end Colombia's bloody conflict but that critics say fails to fully dismantle the illegal militias.

Salvatore Mancuso, a 42-year-old rancher whom human rights groups describe as a mass murderer, was the first senior commander of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) to provide information toprosecutors on massacres and other crimes as part of a 2003 peace agreement with the Government.
Under the peace deal, the feared militia leader and dozens of other right-wing commanders can receive a maximum of just eight years in prison, regardless of their crimes - as long as they provide a full accounting.

Read the full article here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20960437,00.html

By Patrick on Dec 21, 2006, 13:14 in Politics & the war.

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