COLOMBIA: TOP COURT STRIKES DOWN PORTIONS OF PARAMILITARY-DEMOBILIZATION LAW.
A May 18 ruling by Colombia's Corte Constitucional (CC) found key provisions of the Justice and Peace Law governing the disarming of death-squad fighters unconstitutional. The court said that fighters who had committed atrocities would have to pay reparations to victims and serve jail sentences longer than the eight-year upper limit ordered by the law. The ruling drew condemnation from paramilitary leaders who said they would choose to "kill ourselves" or return to fighting rather than face lengthy jail sentences for committing atrocities.
Court: No shortened sentences for massacre perpetrators
Since 2004, the Congress and President Alvaro Uribe have promoted the Justice and Peace Law as a key to demobilizing thousands of members of paramilitary groups, most of them organized under the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). The law allowed groups to disarm and move to haven areas where they could be monitored. The law called on paramilitary leaders to confess their crimes, return stolen goods, and compensate victims in exchange for an eight-year limit on prison terms.
Critics, including human rights groups, the UN, and the US government, condemned the law for giving impunity to individuals and groups that had committed serious crimes like murder and drug trafficking (see NotiSur, 2003-12-19, 2004-06-04, 2004-12-17, 2005-06-17, and 2005-07-22).
The CC backed the arguments of the law's critics by a 6-3 vote, saying people guilty of atrocities would have to serve long jail sentences. The court ruled paramilitaries convicted of crimes before the peace process would have their sentences suspended. However, the court said warlords who were condemned for massacres could again face decades behind bars if they returned to paramilitary activities.
Human rights groups praise ruling
Diplomats and human rights groups say there has been no way to guarantee that the militias and their drug networks are completely dismantled. Commanders were not required to turn over their vast fortunes or confess to atrocities. Prison terms for war crimes could also amount to less than three years.
The CC sought to resolve those objections, saying that the warlords who receive reduced sentences for cooperating must confess to all their crimes and that, if they are found to have lied, they would risk having full prison sentences reinstated. They must pay full reparations to victims' families and direct authorities to the buried bodies of victims. The court also gave...
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