The Colombian government’s peace talks with illegal right-wing paramilitaries are fundamentally flawed and doomed to failure, Human Rights Watch said Monday. ”The process will almost certainly fail to dismantle these groups and result in a lasting peace,” the Washington-based group said in a 64-page report. U.S. legislators are considering giving close to $130 million to aid the process, which the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe hopes will persuade paramilitary leaders to order their remaining 10,000 fighters to demobilize by the end of this year. The paramilitaries were formed in the 1980s at the behest of large landowners, businessmen and drug traffickers to protect themselves from left-wing guerrillas. Now known broadly as the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, they have been blamed for the murders of thousands of civilians suspected of aiding the guerrillas.Full Story
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