Paramilitaries hand over guns, mules and ranches

BOGOTA - Colombian paramilitaries who handed weapons in to the Government last week have surprised observers by returning plundered goods including ranches, small businesses, boats and even mules.

The decision by the outlawed United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia to surrender loot came as the Government considered what punishments paramilitaries should face for their many crimes if they agree to a final peace deal.

In the biggest disarmament in Colombia's history, 1400 fighters from the group, known by the Spanish initials AUC, turned in their weapons at a ceremony on Sunday in the Catatumbo region near the Venezuelan border.

Yesterday, the Government said the AUC also had handed over properties in Catatumbo, including 105 ranches, 58 houses and small businesses - including a bar and two billiard halls - 10 boats and 45 mules.

The head of an Organisation of American States mission observing peace talks said yesterday that the properties should go to relatives of the paramilitaries' victims.

The AUC has killed thousands of people in an illegal campaign against Marxist rebels, and might have given up ill-gotten gains in Catatumbo as a bid to win easy treatment, defence analyst Alfredo Rangel said.

The properties handed over were probably just a fraction of illegal paramilitary holdings in the region, where the AUC has muscled into the cocaine business, he said.

Top AUC commander Salvatore Mancuso, who wept before turning in his pistol, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the massacre of 15 peasants in the late 1990s and faces about 20 other criminal cases.

He is also wanted by the United States for cocaine trafficking, which the US says has made him wealthy.

- REUTERS