OAS: Colombia peace process to be tough in 2007
Due to recent stumbles, Colombia's peace process faces a tough year in 2007, head of the Organization of American States (OAS)'s mission in Colombia said on Tuesday.

"We are going to keep a close eye ... because 2007 is not going to be an easy year," said Sergio Caramagna, after meeting some former officers of the Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) in their jail in Itagui, a village in the northeast department of Antioquia.

"We must overcome a series of unfortunate events that have affected the peace process ... affecting its progress," said Caramagna.

Talks between the AUC and the government were deadlocked in early December after the latter ordered the transfer of 59 imprisoned senior AUC officers to Itagui, and several demobilized AUC members were murdered.

Caramagna said that the jailed officers were willing to continue talks, despite the problems. The OAS did not have any evidence of an alleged plan to exterminate former AUC members and officers, an allegation made some days ago by the AUC chiefs, he added.

Since August, the 59 officers had been held in La Ceja, a tourist town in Antioquia, where they enjoyed comforts rarely experienced by prisoners.

The AUC leaders said the move violated a verbal pact that prohibits holding AUC officers in conventional jails.

Alvaro Uribe, who was re-elected president of Colombia in May partly due to his tough stance on Colombia's armed groups, said the government ordered the move because of rumors that the AUC chiefs were planning a jailbreak.

During the peace process that began in 2003, the vast majority of Colombia's 31,000 AUC paramilitaries handed in their weapons and returned to civilian life.