Colombian paramilitary fighters leave safe haven
Paramilitary warlords in Colombia surrendered their control of a government-granted safe zone on Saturday, indicating that demobilization talks with the government are nearing the end, officials said.

More than 300 soldiers and police officers immediately entered the safe haven around the town of Santa Fe de Ralito in northwest Colombia to restore government authority and services in the region.

"We are going to work together with all the residents of Santa Fe de Ralito," said Gen. Ruben Carillo, the local police commander.

The police move came after 300 paramilitary fighters who served as the warlords' personal bodyguards handed in their weapons at a ceremony on Saturday, said the office of government Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo.

Just over a year ago, the safe haven was created so that top commanders of the paramilitary umbrella United Self-Defense Forces, or AUC, could live without worries about being arrested while negotiations were going on.

Officials said some 9,000 militia fighters have since surrendered their arms and it is expected that the outlawed AUC will be completely disbanded by the end of this year when the remaining 4,000 are also expected to have handed over their arms.

Under a peace law passed by the congress, the vast majority of the paramilitary fighters will be pardoned and the leaders who have committed serious crimes will also benefit from sharply reduced prison sentences.

The right-wing 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 areas of Antioquia and Cordoba.

Colombia has been locked in a four-decade civil war, the longest in Latin America, in which government forces, leftist guerrillas and far-right paramilitaries fight one another. The conflicts kill more than 3,000 people every year.