Colombia Destroys 18,000
Weapons Handed In By
Former Paramilitaries
The Colombian government
on Friday destroyed
18,000 weapons seized
from disarming former
paramilitary groups and
planned to turn the
weapons into artworks
promoting peace.
Jose Miguel Insulza,
general secretary of the
Organization of American
States, presided over a
ceremony for smelting
these weapons, which was
carried out at the
National Iron and Steel
Company in central
Boyaca province.
"We hope this act is a
firm advance towards
peace," said Insulza,
whose organization is
observing the peace
process between the
Colombian government and
the country's right-wing
paramilitary United
Self-Defense Forces (AUC).
Colombia's high peace
commissioner Luis Carlos
Restrepo also attended
the ceremony.
The AUC had fiercely
fought the
anti-government leftist
guerrillas before
joining a
government-initiated
peace process in 2003.
A total of 31,000
members of the group had
disarmed themselves by
April 2006 in exchange
for amnesty granted by
the government or
reduced jail terms.
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