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> 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> 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.

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Also, Like us on facebook </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> BOGOTA, Colombia — Congress formally ratified a revised peace agreement with Colombia's biggest leftist rebel group, capping a torturous four years of negotiations, a stunning referendum rejection, last-minute compromises and two signing ceremonies.

The initial pact was narrowly rejected by voters last month, and President Juan Manuel Santos decided to skip a referendum on the new version and go directly to congress, where the deal's supporters hold a majority. Opponents, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, boycotted the legislative votes, which resulted in unanimous approval by the Senate on Tuesday and by the lower house late Wednesday.

The new 310-page accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia introduced 50 changes to the initial deal in an attempt to assuage opponents as the government seeks to end a 52-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven almost 8 million from their homes.

The modifications include a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government or FARC troops, and a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate victims. But the FARC rejected demands for jail sentences for rebel leaders responsible for atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.

The compromises weren't enough for some of the deal's opponents.

"There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there's complete impunity," Uribe, now a senator, said during the Senate debate. Other senators accused him of standing in the way of a peace deal that he pursued with the FARC as president in 2002-10.

Santos said ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the FARC's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors. "Tomorrow a new era begins," he said Wednesday.

But the rebels insist their troops won't start demobilizing until lawmakers pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail.

"D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented," the rebel leader Pastor Alape, part of the FARC's 10-member secretariat, said last week after the new accord was signed. "The president unfortunately has been demonstrating an attitude that creates confusion in the country."

The debate over amnesty highlights one of the peace deal's early challenges: the need for congress to pass legislation implementing the accord and setting up special peace tribunals.

Santos was initially counting on swift approval of the needed changes that in some cases require constitutional amendments. But the referendum loss has left the status of his fast-track authority in doubt, awaiting a ruling by the constitutional court. Experts say a solid pro-peace coalition could crumble if implementation drags on and butts against the political maneuvering for the 2018 presidential election.

Beyond the legal hurdles, there is also concern FARC fighters will wind up joining criminal gangs rampant across Colombia or the much-smaller rebel National Liberation Army, which for months has been playing cat and mouse with the government over opening a peace process of its own. On Wednesday, both sides said they would delay until January any decision about when to start talks.

Combating security threats will test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.

There is also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s. At that time, thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were killed by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

Worries about new bloodshed, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the initial signing ceremony in September. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014. </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> BOGOTA, Colombia--Congress formally ratified a revised peace agreement with Colombia's biggest leftist rebel group, capping a torturous four years of negotiations, a stunning referendum rejection, last-minute compromises and two signing ceremonies.

The initial pact was narrowly rejected by voters last month, and President Juan Manuel Santos decided to skip a referendum on the new version and go directly to congress, where the deal's supporters hold a majority. Opponents, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, boycotted the legislative votes, which resulted in unanimous approval by the Senate on Tuesday and by the lower house late Wednesday.

The new 310-page accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia introduced 50 changes to the initial deal in an attempt to assuage opponents as the government seeks to end a 52-year conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people and driven almost 8 million from their homes.

The modifications include a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government or FARC troops, and a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate victims. But the FARC rejected demands for jail sentences for rebel leaders responsible for atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.

The compromises weren't enough for some of the deal's opponents.

"There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there's complete impunity," Uribe, now a senator, said during the Senate debate. Other senators accused him of standing in the way of a peace deal that he pursued with the FARC as president in 2002-10.

Santos said ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the FARC's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors. "Tomorrow a new era begins," he said Wednesday.

But the rebels insist their troops won't start demobilizing until lawmakers pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail.

"D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented," the rebel leader Pastor Alape, part of the FARC's 10-member secretariat, said last week after the new accord was signed. "The president unfortunately has been demonstrating an attitude that creates confusion in the country."

The debate over amnesty highlights one of the peace deal's early challenges: the need for congress to pass legislation implementing the accord and setting up special peace tribunals.

Santos was initially counting on swift approval of the needed changes that in some cases require constitutional amendments. But the referendum loss has left the status of his fast-track authority in doubt, awaiting a ruling by the constitutional court. Experts say a solid pro-peace coalition could crumble if implementation drags on and butts against the political maneuvering for the 2018 presidential election. </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.
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.