Paramilitary demobilization agreement reached in Colombia

The Colombian government reached agreement Thursday with a right-wing paramilitary group on its demobilization.

The 13,000-strong United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) agreed to move into a concentration zone in Tierralta, northern Colombia's Cordoba department and will be disarmed within six months. The process will be monitored by representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS).

In the concentration zone, they will be protected by governmenttroops and exempted from prosecution.

The AUC was established in the 1980s by drug traffickers and land owners to fight leftist guerrillas in areas where government troops had little control. It has been active in northern Colombia,particularly in the departments of Antioquia and Cordoba.

The AUC demobilization process will help ease Colombia's civil war, the longest in Latin America, which kills about 3,500 people a year on average.

Source: Xinhua